Fix You
by dreaZALA
Summary: After Thor stopped Loki from destroying Jotunheim, he saved him from falling into the void. For his punishment, Odin strips Loki of his powers and sends him to Earth to repent for his actions, in hopes that he will learn humility there as Thor did. Will a certain woman thaw his frozen heart, or will his anger defeat him?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Thor had been lucky that when he had plummeted to Midgard, a beautiful scientist was there to catch him before something far less innocent reached him. Loki was not as fortunate, though that was often the case.

Odin had called on dark elves to rid Asgard of Loki with the Bifrost lost, resorting to desperate measures to rid his golden lands of the dark cloud that had plagued it for centuries. He had convinced himself that he was doing this for Loki's own good, but his false son could taste the lie of it on his silver tongue.

He had expected the softhearted Thor to appeal to Odin for a different fate, but it appeared that he had given up on him as thoroughly as their father. Loki suspected it was partly due to his attempt to launch himself into the void to die, and partly due to Thor's internal struggle to accept Loki's true parentage.

It mattered not, for Loki's heart had hardened to Odin and to Thor and even to his mother, Frigga, for her part in the deception his entire life had been. All through the process of his judgement, he remained silent and stoic and unresponsive. He refused to apologize for his actions, to feel sorry for the pain and destruction that he had caused his family and the people of Midgard.

It was only when Odin had revealed his fate that Loki reacted, thrashing and writhing and spitting vile things at his false family before him. It was Thor who helped the guards restrain him, with tears streaming down his golden face, and Loki hated him more than he ever had before.

When Loki felt solid ground beneath his feet, he stumbled and fell onto his hands and knees on the hard, dry desert floor . He coughed as dust rose from the impact and assaulted his lungs, and he waved a hand to will the dust away. When his magic failed him, he cursed and covered his face with his hand.

He tried to push himself from the ground, but the travel had taken its toll on his body. His arm gave out beneath him and he rolled onto his side in the dirt, his breathing heavy and labored from his exhaustion. He tried once more to stand, but ended up flat on his back and staring up at the stars shining against their black backdrop above him.

* * *

It was not long before he heard growling from every side, growing louder with approach, and enough adrenaline rushed through him that he managed to get to his feet to defend himself.

Bright lights assaulted his eyes, and he hissed as he brought his hand up to shield them. He tried to blink past them, to see his enemy before they attacked, but he could not see past the blinding light.

''Cut the engines,'' a voice sounded. Human.

The growling died completely, but the lights remained. The gravel crunched as someone approached, and Loki turned to face the coming threat. The human moved into the path of lights, allowing Loki to see him as he moved to stand at his front.

He wore a nice suit, and sunglasses over his eyes. He had a light brushing of brown hair on the top of his head, and just the barest sign of wrinkles etched the areas of his face that Loki could see.

Loki narrowed his eyes at him, a small sense of familiarity prickling in the back of his mind.

''Hello,'' the man began, his voice holding a surprising amount of authority given the situation, calm as if he had seen a man fall from the sky before. ''My name is Agent Phil Coulson.''

Loki did not extend the same greeting back, his body tense with suspicion. His eyes flickered behind the man, and he could faintly make out the outline of others standing a few feet away. He was hoping for a possibility of a clean escape, but he was thoroughly surrounded.

''I'm with a government agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D.,'' Agent Coulson stated slowly. ''I would like for you to come with us. We have a few questions for you.''

Loki recalled reading the acronym on the wall of the room where he had broken the news of their father to Thor, and he had no desire to put himself in the same predicament.

Loki struck out, as quick as a snake, and Agent Coulson went down just as fast. The others moved in quickly to restrain him, and Loki made it through another three agents before he was overwhelmed by the numbers. With his powers gone he was human and vulnerable, and he had never been much of a fighter.

He writhed against the restraining hands, and snarled when he felt a sting at the side of his neck. It was only a matter of seconds before he felt his world twist and turn and fade, before going completely black.

* * *

The world vibrated around him, and his vision was foggy when he finally stirred from his forced slumber. He felt something tight across his chest and thighs, and blinked past the gloom to see leather straps holding his body down on a narrow bed. His eyes flickered around the room, confused by the small, cylindrical metal walls and the growling that came from outside.

''He's awake,'' he heard someone say, and a man in a long white coat approached the side of the bed with two agents at his back. He noted Loki's confusion, and smirked widely. To Loki, his teeth looked like tiny daggers. ''You're in an airplane.''

Loki remained confused.

''A big flying machine,'' the man continued, speaking slowly and condescendingly as if talking to an invalid. ''In the sky.''

Loki's lip curled in displeasure, and he pulled against the straps. He slipped a dagger from his sleeve, one of the only weapons his father had allowed him to keep in case he needed to defend himself, and cut the leather in a flash.

He launched himself at the man in white, and sliced through the two agents when they came to his aid. Loki was still disoriented from the drugs, and did not hear the curse from the cockpit of the plane or the heavy footsteps as they approached. He pulled himself up against the wall of the plane, his breathing heavy as he looked down at his bloodied hands.

Loki looked up just in time to see a man in a black and purple before he was struck across the face, and sent once again into an obsidian darkness.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. This is my fourth BlackFrost story, and most likely my last. This was my last idea for the pairing, and I hope I do it justice. Please continue reading, and please review.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Natasha was in the training room at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters when she got the call from Director Fury. She stopped her assault on the punching bag to press the button on her communicator to respond to his message. ''Agent Romanoff here. You want me in Interrogation?''

''Only to observe,'' he told her. ''You remember that event in New Mexico a few weeks ago?''

''The alien technology that destroyed Puente Antiguo,'' she stated, recalling Agent Coulson briefing her and the other agents after the event. ''What about it?''

''I'll fill you in when you get to Interrogation.''

Natasha removed her hand from the communicator, and retrieved her towel from the bench by the door. She quickly ran the towel over her arms and legs and chest, sufficiently drying the sweat that had built there during her workout. She disappeared into the locker room to change, and reappeared in her S.H.I.E.L.D. issue jumpsuit.

The leather clung to her every curve, and it did not escape her that every man looked her way as she made her way to Interrogation. She stopped in the hallway just outside, when she found Clint Barton in her path.

''Did Director Fury call you too, Barton?'' she asked. For most, using his last name would seem distant and formal. But between the two, it was her sentimental way of addressing him. He gave her a small smile, but it faded when he answered her.

''No,'' he told her. ''I just delivered the guy.''

''Who is he?'' she questioned, her brow furrowing.

''I have no idea,'' he replied. ''But he's wicked fast. He put three of our guys in the infirmary. Doctor Frank is in critical condition.''

Natasha shrugged indifferently, and Clint frowned at her. Despite their shared history of blood and death, they were two very different people. He was soft and sentimental, and she was hard and cruel.

''Fury is in Observation,'' Clint said, moving aside so she could move past him. She nodded to him, and didn't look back as she disappeared inside.

* * *

Director Fury stood silently with his hands clasped at his back when Natasha entered Observation, staring through the one-way glass that looked into the interrogation room. He did not look over to know it was her, and instead began the briefing.

''When we recovered Jane Foster's research, there was evidence that a man had fallen from the sky in the middle of a storm,'' he told her.

''Like the hammer? And the war machine?'' she asked, and he nodded.

''Agent Coulson made the call to release a man named Donald Blake from custody. He was the man who stopped the war machine in Puente Antiguo. We suspect that he is the man that fell from the sky.''

Natasha looked past Fury, to the man in the chair. ''Is this Donald Blake?''

''No,'' Director Fury stated. ''But he just fell from the sky. We believe him to be of the same origin. Agent Coulson is checking on the agents in the infirmary, then he will perform the interrogation.''

Natasha nodded, and moved to stand at Director Fury's side, and took the time before the interrogation to observe the man.

He angled his face up, his eyes narrowed at the glass as if he could see through it. Natasha felt a tremor run through her body as she gazed into his brilliant green eyes, and found it difficult to look away. When she finally managed, she glanced over the raven black hair that was brushed back from his face, noting how it was just long enough to start curling at the ends. He was darkly handsome, with prominent cheekbones and sharp features.

His clothes were something else entirely, made of fabric and metal in green and black and tarnished gold. They were a style she had never seen before, so unique they were almost proof enough that he was of another world. They shifted with his every slight movement, and there was an arrogance about the way he was sprawled in the metal chair unnerved her.

The door to Interrogation opening broke her observation, and she watched Agent Coulson silently cross the room. He set a folder on the table in the middle of the room, and started the interrogation.

* * *

Loki could feel eyes on him, though all he could see was himself reflected in the mirror across the room from where he was sitting. He did not have long to dwell on this concept, that there were people behind the mirror, when the door opened and Agent Coulson entered the room.

Loki suppressed the urge to smirk when he saw the purple skin on Agent Coulson's lip where he had landed his punch. The man did not seem wearied by it, and sat calmly across from him at the table, his hand playing with the folder that he had set between them.

''There was no need to make things so difficult,'' Agent Coulson stated. ''We mean you no harm.''

Loki did not respond, though his disbelief was evident in his smirk.

''I assure you, the more you cooperate the easier this will be,'' Agent Coulson continued politely. ''May I ask your name?''

Loki's tongue twisted in his mouth as he contemplated his options. Without his magic, he had little to no possibility of getting out of this room without cooperating. He grimaced, just the slightest baring of his teeth, displeased with this realization.

''My name is Loki,'' he answered, his tone clipped.

''Do you have a last name?''

Loki's eyebrows raised slightly, taken back by the question. It was not something that would have stumped him a few weeks ago, but with the revelation of his parentage he was not sure how to answer.

''Laufeyson,'' he replied, albeit hesitantly. Agent Coulson did not say anything for a moment, and instead opened the folder so that the contents were facing Loki.

Loki put his bloody, shackled hands on the table and leaned forward in his chair, feigning interest as he gazed down at the papers.

Loki would not be known as the God of Mischief if he was not good at lying, so when he saw Thor's picture lain blatantly in front of him, he kept the recognition from his face.

''I do not know this man.''

Agent Coulson reacted, but it did not appear to be from what Loki had said. He put his hand to his ear. ''Understood.''

He gave Loki a trying look, that bordered on condescension. He put his fingertips on the folder and pushed it closer to Loki. ''Take a closer look, Mr. Laufeyson.''

Loki raised an eyebrow at Agent Coulson. He did not look back down to the folder. ''I do not know this man.''

Agent Coulson sighed, and pressed his hand to his ear again. ''Understood.''

He clasped his hands on the table in front of himself, and his expression was patient. ''I once stayed in an interrogation room for a week. The sooner you stop lying and start cooperating, the sooner we will let you leave.''

Loki's responding smile was sharp and without humor. ''You would let me leave?'' Loki replied dryly, his disbelief evident in his tone. ''I fell from the sky. I injured your men. I am not fool enough to believe that you would let me walk out of here, and it would be a grave mistake to think me one.''

Agent Coulson smiled slightly, and Loki was surprised to not see malice in it. It was just calm, and kind, but Loki had been fooled by such things once before.

''Then let's make a deal,'' Agent Coulson said, and held out his hand. ''Let's make this easy for us both. Let's tell each other the truth.''

Loki bit his tongue, and stared at the man for a long few moments. ''I will tell you what I wish to tell you,'' he said, and Agent Coulson's smile wavered slightly. ''But what I tell you will be the truth.''

Agent Coulson's smile returned full force, accepting that this was the best he was going to get. Loki wearily took the man's hand, securing the deal.

Once again, Agent Coulson pushed the folder toward Loki. ''Who is this man?''

Loki hesitated, but knew there were some truths he would have to compromise on. With a heavy chest, and a solemn expression, Loki answered him.

''My brother.''

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. This story has me really excited, and I hope you are getting excited too. Please keep reading, and reviewing.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

''He is lying,'' Natasha said into her communicator, for the second time now.

''Understood,'' Agent Coulson replied into his own communicator, from inside Interrogation. He pressed the subject, and Loki finally folded and told them how he knew Donald Blake. With most interrogations, that first bit of information would be the crack in the dam, but she had a feeling that Loki was only cooperating enough to pacify them.

''Donald Blake is your brother?'' Agent Coulson repeated, his eyebrows raised high on his forehead.

''I do not know that name,'' Loki replied.

Natasha sighed, and leaned her head against the back wall of the observation room. Loki was a very difficult interrogation, and it had only just begun. He would not willingly offer up any information, and he was too smart to be cracked by Agent Coulson.

''Director Fury,'' she said. ''I would like to request that you allow me to do the interrogation.''

Director Fury looked away from the interrogation room to her, his face impassive. ''Your request is denied, Agent Romanoff.''

She frowned, and crossed her arms over her chest. ''May I ask why?''

He shifted slightly, as if uncomfortable, and she knew he was about to disclose important information. ''Agent Coulson and I have plans for Mr. Laufeyson. If he is anything like his brother, we could use him as an ally,'' he told her.

Natasha raised her eyebrows as she caught on, but she did not like the implications. ''And as a resource.''

Director Fury responded with silence, and he continued without answering her. ''We need a secret weapon against him, and that weapon is you. If we expose our strengths now, we would be fish in a barrel if something goes wrong.''

''You think he is that powerful?'' Natasha asked.

''I think that he should not be underestimated,'' Director Fury stated. ''Jane Foster's research gave us almost definite evidence that there are other worlds out there that are home to life. If he is from one of those worlds, he is not something we are prepared for.''

''You want to leash him,'' Natasha replied, her tongue tasting bitter. ''Like you did me.''

Director Fury said nothing, and Natasha stopped pressing. Instead, she returned to the observation window and watched the interrogation unfold without any further interruptions.

* * *

''What is your brother's real name?'' Agent Coulson asked.

''Thor,'' Loki replied dryly, and it was everything he could do not to spit it.

''Loki and Thor,'' Agent Coulson repeated. ''Like in Norse mythology?''

Loki did not reply, only sat back in his chair with his legs splayed and bound hands between them. His eyes flickered to the mirror again, his attention straying from Agent Coulson.

''There are people behind the mirror,'' Loki said carefully, though there was just enough of a question behind the statement that Agent Coulson felt it necessary to answer.

''Correct,'' Agent Coulson said, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. It was common knowledge that most interrogation rooms either had cameras or an observation room, and it only further confirmed that Loki was of another place. ''If all goes well, you will meet them when I am done questioning you.''

''And if all does not go well?'' Loki mused, raising an eyebrow at Agent Coulson.

''We'll cross that bridge if we get to it,'' Agent Coulson replied, and Loki's amusement turned to distaste. ''Why are you here, Mr. Laufeyson?''

Loki's tongue twisted in his mouth. ''That is between me and my family.''

Agent Coulson sighed. ''Would you like me to cut to the chase, Mr. Laufeyson?''

''That would be welcome,'' Loki replied dryly.

''You fell from the sky. There is a good possibility that you are from another world. Since you can't disclose information that tells us otherwise, we can't let you go,'' Agent Coulson stated. ''Given that, we have a proposition for you.''

''And if I refuse the proposition?'' Loki asked carefully.

''We have a prison for special cases like yours,'' Agent Coulson stated bluntly. ''We'd lock you up and throw away the key.''

Loki chuckled, but it was without humor. ''I can appreciate a man for his blatancy.''

''Only because you are man who lacks it,'' Agent Coulson replied, and Loki obligingly nodded his agreement.

''What is your proposition?'' Loki questioned politely.

''We want you to work for us,'' Agent Coulson stated. ''It will allow us to keep an eye on you, and it will give you a decent amount of freedom while you are here.''

''As much freedom as the chains allow,'' Loki sneered.

''We understand that you are used to different conditions, but you have to understand where we are coming from,'' Agent Coulson said, attempting to appeal to a humanity in Loki that was lost. ''You are a hostile, alien force. It would be within our right to defend ourselves and eliminate the threat.''

''You would kill me?'' Loki asked, his surprise evident in his tone.

''Humans have a tendency to kill what they do not understand,'' Agent Coulson confirmed. ''It is not something we're proud of, but it's true. It has kept us safe so far.''

''Not from yourselves,'' Loki replied icily.

Agent Coulson shrugged. ''That's why S.H.I.E.L.D. was formed. We're a secret agency that targets and eliminates those who wish to bring harm to our people,'' he said. ''People kill other people, it's a fault that I am willing to recognize. But S.H.I.E.L.D. does what it can to prevent it.''

It was an acceptable answer, so Loki did not comment further. ''What would be expected of me?''

''Mostly field work. We'd pair you up with one of our finest agents, send you off to different parts of the world to complete different tasks,'' Agent Coulson stated. ''Recovery missions, information gathering, target elimination.''

''Assassinations,'' Loki simplified, his eyebrow raising slightly in surprise.

Agent Coulson ignored him. ''We also recovered a piece of alien technology from the ocean that we'd like you to take a look at. Maybe you can shed some light on what it is.''

Loki was silent for a long time. Stuck as he was without his powers, he had few to no options besides to accept. He was not fond of the circumstances, as he was not fond of what he would have to do, but it seemed necessary for him to survive. Sitting in a prison cell until he died a human death would not win him back in the heart of his father, though he wasn't sure if that was even what he wanted anymore.

Agent Coulson put out his hand once again, and Loki eyed it wearily. After a few long moments, Loki took his hand, albeit hesitantly, and accepted the proposition.

''It's good to have you on board,'' Agent Coulson stated. ''Ready to meet your partner?''

Loki did not respond, and instead looked toward the door where the handle was slowly twisting. He frowned when it did not open immediately, and instead the small crack in the door allowed him to hear a muffled argument just outside of the door.

A few moments later, the door flew open, and a woman calmly walked inside.

There was a tension in her body, and a heat in her cheeks that drew his attention immediately to her face. His eyes met with fire, and he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

''Agent Laufeyson,'' Agent Coulson stated, standing politely from his chair. ''Meet Agent Romanoff. Your partner.''

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's only the beginning of the plot, and there is much excitement to come. I'm updating fast because I am starting my new job very soon, and I won't be able to update as often. Please keep reading and reviewing.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Natasha slammed the door to Observation open as she exited, angered by what Director Fury had just informed her. He followed calmly behind her, and put his hand on the door to Interrogation. He did not open it immediately, knowing Natasha had a few words to share with him before she entered.

''I have to babysit him?'' she yelled, drawing the attention of the other agents that bustled through the hall. ''Clint is my partner!''

Director Fury cleared his throat threateningly, and the other agents quickly went back to minding their own business. When he looked back to Natasha, his face was solemn, and the fear of what he would say capped her anger momentarily.

''Agent Barton requested a different partner,'' he told her.

She kept the surprise from her face. ''Why?'' she asked carefully.

Director Fury pressed his lips into a tight line. ''I can't disclose that information. You will have to ask him.''

Natasha felt like her body was on fire when she pushed the door to Interrogation open and entered the room, forcing herself to cooperate and put the news about Clint aside.

She felt Loki's eyes on her, and she met his steadily. He cocked an eyebrow at her, and did not react to the news Agent Coulson had broken to him.

''Agent Laufeyson,'' Agent Coulson repeated for the third time, and finally it broke Loki's gaze from hers. ''Agent Romanoff will give you a tour of the facility. We'll have you look at the alien technology we found before we get you settled in for the night.''

Natasha turned sharply from the room, and exited without waiting for Loki. Agent Coulson sighed and quickly unfastened Loki's shackles, before moving aside so that Loki could catch up with the angered woman.

''Good luck.''

* * *

Loki was silent as Natasha walked him through the facility. She showed him the control room, the infirmary, the training room, the hallway that led to the private quarters, and finally the laboratory.

She had not been there often, but she knew her way around enough to reach the lead scientist. Erik Selvig smiled kindly at her when she approached, and it took her a fraction of a second to realize Loki had strayed.

''You should not be tampering with that.''

Natasha turned to see Loki move in between the scientist and the glowing blue cube that was suspended in one of Selvig's machines. The woman was small, and frail, and cowered back from Loki in fear. He seemed to know the effect he was having on her, and still he continued to press.

Natasha was quick to reach his side. ''Enough,'' she said, grabbing his arm and forcing him away.

He ripped his arm from her grip, and turned dark eyes to her. ''Your people should not have the Tesseract. You do not know its capabilities,'' he hissed. ''It is not of your realm.''

''Realm?'' she repeated.

''That is precisely why we brought you here,'' Agent Coulson interrupted, surprising them all as he seemed to appear out of thin air. He and Erik Selvig moved to stand with Loki and Natasha, and Loki turned his dark eyes to the other agent.

''We recovered the Tesseract from the ocean along with a man named Steve Rogers. This is our lead scientist, Doctor Erik Selvig. He has been running tests to classify this technology, but it is nothing we have ever seen,'' Agent Coulson explained. ''It would be greatly appreciated if you could shed some light on it.''

Loki gritted his teeth, so much anger radiating off of him that it was nearly palpable. ''You need to cease tampering with the Tesseract. Stop your experiments. The more you disturb it the more attention you will draw,'' Loki snarled, his voice demanding in its urgency. ''Attention you are not prepared for.''

''What do you mean?'' Selvig asked, concern evident on his expression.

Loki just shook his head, and Natasha was surprised to see fear flicker briefly over his features.

Agent Coulson swallowed hard, but let it go. ''Doctor Selvig, have your people temporarily shut down operations until I speak with Director Fury,'' he commanded, and Selvig nodded.

Agent Coulson vanished as quickly as he had come, and Selvig turned to Loki and held out his hand. ''It was nice to meet you, Agent...?''

''Loki Laufeyson,'' Natasha answered him, when Loki failed to.

Recognition flashed over his features, and his hand quickly withdrew before Loki even moved to take it. ''Er... Uhm... I should start doing as Agent Coulson instructed. Good day, Agent Romanoff,'' Selvig stumbled, and quickly dismissed himself. Natasha watched after him in confusion, but after he disappeared from view, she let it go and instead led Loki from the laboratory.

''It is not of our realm?'' Natasha questioned again as they moved through the facility, toward the private quarters.

''It is a concept beyond your understanding,'' Loki replied. Natasha's jaw tensed in anger, but she held her tongue.

When they reached the hallway that was home to Natasha's room, she noted that the door across from her own was wide open. It was the room of her partner, of Clint, and she approached it wearily.

* * *

Inside, Clint was packing the few personal items he had into a box.

''Wait here,'' she said to Loki, and she was surprised when he did not argue and quietly obliged her.

She walked silently into the room, but Clint knew her presence like the back of his hand. ''Nat,'' he addressed her, without looking up from his task.

''Don't you dare 'Nat' me,'' she snarled, her anger suddenly overflowing again, and he looked up to her with a guilty expression. ''And don't give me puppy eyes. You went behind my back and asked for a new partner?'' She phrased the last bit as a question, needing his answer more than she wanted to admit.

''Natasha,'' he said softly, patiently, but she refused to let it dampen her anger. ''You know why I had to.''

She said nothing and crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest, her jaw set and angry.

He approached her slowly, wearily, and put his hands on her arms. At first she refused to look at him, but his soft, pleading gaze finally broke her and she turned her eyes his way. ''You don't feel the same way as me,'' Clint told her. ''You made that clear. I'm sorry that I am weak, that I can't work with you because of my own feelings.''

When he was met with only her silence, he continued. ''I made it clear in my report that it was my own fault. That my request was not your fault.''

''You think I care about a little more red in my ledger?'' she replied sourly, and Clint did not respond. Instead, he picked up the box and started past her, his hand venturing out as he passed to gently brush her arm. Her anger seemed to dissipate when his hand fell away, but she refused to turn around to watch him leave.

She stood there for a long moment, collecting herself, and did not turn immediately when she heard a new set of footsteps enter the room.

''This is your room,'' Natasha stated, knowing it was Loki that stood at her back. She raised her chin when she did turn to face him, and while from the back she had looked solemn and defeated, she appeared as strong and confident as ever.

Loki hesitated to accept, startled by the abrupt change. She waited passively for him to acknowledge what she had said, and blinked when he finally nodded.

''Training starts at 0600,'' she stated sharply. ''I want to gauge your skills if we are going to be going on missions together.''

''Very well,'' Loki replied calmly, and Natasha left without another word.

He shut the door behind her, and sank against the thick metal as the weight of the day fell on his shoulders. He closed his eyes and sighed, and the exhaustion from earlier suddenly presented itself again. He slowly forced himself to stand, and wearily approached the bed.

He stripped down completely from his Asgardian wear and crawled beneath the stiff sheets. There was an object flashing lighted numbers beside the bed, and he figured the ones Agent Romanoff had spouted were related. It took him some time, but he figured out the device and set the alarm for the time Agent Romanoff had instructed.

Loki laid down in the sheets and stared up at the ceiling, wondering if Heimdall or his father or Thor was looking down on him at that moment, or if he had been already forgotten.

With a bitter taste on his tongue, Loki fell asleep.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. A little bit of drama for your mama. Just kidding. I'm in a weird mood. Please keep reading and reviewing. Sorry if it was a bit sharp at the end, I'm bad with transitions.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Loki felt eyes on him, and opened his own wearily to survey the room. Though his eyes had to adjust to the darkness, it was not difficult to spot the flaming red hair from the shadows around it.

Natasha Romanoff stood at the end of his bed with her arms crossed over her chest, a patient expression on her face as she watched him. She had lost the leather jumpsuit, and instead wore a pair of black shorts with a matching fitted shirt, the colors blending so seamlessly together that it was difficult to tell where one item of clothing ended and the other began. Her hair was unbound, a beautiful mess of curls around her face.

Loki slowly sat up in the bed, before glancing with narrowed eyes at the clock on his nightstand and running a lazy hand through his hair. He expected it to be past the time he was supposed to meet her, but the numbers read 0440, and he looked at her in confusion.

''I couldn't sleep,'' she told him, finally breaking her silence. ''Let's start training early.''

''Very well,'' he replied, but she made no move to leave. ''You may wish to wait outside while I get dressed, Agent Romanoff.''

As he stood he drew the sheet with him, and her gaze slowly flickered down his body, to where his hand gripped the cloth at his waste. ''You sleep naked?'' she asked with raised eyebrows.

He did not say anything, and instead let his silence be her answer. He walked past her and to where he had discarded his Asgardian clothes on the floor.

''When we go on our missions, you sleep with clothes on,'' she ordered, and though her tone was calm it left no room for argument. She crossed the floor to the door, and looked back to eye his garments. ''You can wear those for now, but I'll find some S.H.I.E.L.D. issue clothes for you to train in. Director Fury should have a uniform for you by the time we are finished.''

Loki dropped the sheet when the door closed, and quickly slipped his clothes in place. He left the outer jacket across his bed, as well as the heavy pieces of leather and armor that adorned it.

Natasha was waiting against the wall beside his door when he exited his room, and together they went to the training room.

* * *

Loki had never worn garments that exposed his legs, and he was not particularly comfortable with them when he walked from the locker room. The outfit Natasha had scavenged for him was a more masculine version of her own, with loose shorts that fell to his knees and a shirt that fitted his broad shoulders and narrow waist.

''Much better,'' Natasha noted, moving back from the punching bag that she had been viciously pounding to look him over. There was the slightest sheen of sweat on the parts of her skin that were exposed, and Loki could not stop his eyes from traveling the long lines of her bare legs.

''My clothes would have suited just as well,'' Loki replied. ''They were made for battle.''

''Is that common?'' she asked. ''Where you are from?''

Loki flashed a quick smile, but it was more to himself than to her. ''Battle is common. Though it is more often of my own consequence than not.''

''You cause trouble?'' she questioned, her eyebrow furrowing slightly.

''Mischief,'' he corrected her, and the smile that played on his lips was at her expense. He looked around the training room then, and noticed the area that was bare except for a few mats on the floor. ''Shall we?''

''Do you not want to warm up first?'' she asked.

''I will manage,'' Loki replied. He remembered countless days sparring with Thor and his friends, and though he could hardly hold his own against the larger Asgardians, he was sure enough in his abilities that he could handle the petite woman without difficulty. ''You wished to know my skills, and this will be the best way for you learn them.''

''It doesn't just benefit me,'' she reminded him, her voice holding just enough condescension to be offensive. ''If we are going to be working together, you need to know what I am capable of as well.''

Loki gave her a look that expressed his displeasure. ''You do not need me to treat me as if I am a child,'' he told her, his anger flaring.

Natasha smiled at him. ''You're right. I just wanted you angry.''

Shock flickered over his expression for a moment, before it was quickly replaced by irritation. He was not aware that the woman was capable of at least minor manipulation, but given her job, it should not have surprised him.

''You're more likely not to hold back when you're angry,'' she said. ''Since you're experienced, I would expect you not to treat me differently because I am a woman.'' Her wording was careful, carrying certain implications that were not lost on Loki.

''I have sparred with a woman,'' Loki assured her, but said nothing more.

Natasha walked to the far edge of the mats and turned to face him, taking up a fighting stance. Loki did the same, as far from her as he could be while still being on the mats.

Loki had never had to go easy on Sif when they had sparred, and Natasha proved quickly that he did not have to go easy on her either. In fact, she was a far more difficult opponent and Loki had to adjust himself to match her.

Unlike Sif, who was blunt and brutal, Natasha was calculating and cruel. Instead of attacking with her own strength, Natasha used his against him. Loki had lost enough battles against Sif that he had learned not to let his pride cloud his head, and it allowed him to quickly catch on to Natasha's tricks. He wondered idly how she would fair against him if he had his magic, surprised as he was at how she handled his raw talent.

By the time they were finished, he had turned the tables enough that they were evenly matched. It took one too many times of him being thrown on his back and winded for him to call it quits, and he silently cursed his human body. Natasha was not fool enough to mock him for stopping, for she herself had to sit down on the mat beside him to recover.

''Impressive,'' she said breathlessly, laying down flat on her back on the cool mats.

''As were you, Agent Romanoff,'' Loki replied, his voice betraying his exhaustion as well.

It took a few moments before they stood once again, and they parted ways to go into their separate locker rooms. When Natasha emerged in her jumpsuit, she waited patiently for Loki to return so they could see Director Fury about their first mission.

He walked slowly out of the locker room, and her eyebrows raised at the sight of him.

Director Fury must have left the S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform waiting for him. It was made of the same black leather as her jumpsuit, and it fitted to his lithe frame without flaw. It had dark green accents that matched his eyes, and the belt that fastened at his waist held a gold symbol that looked like horns.

Loki raised an eyebrow at Natasha, and it took her a moment to realize that she had been staring. She cleared her throat and walked past him to the door, her face as impassive as ever.

''We need to go see Director Fury.''

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The story is moving relatively slowly, but I am enjoying myself. I hope Loki isn't too out of character, but realistically, in this universe he didn't fall into the void and go crazy. Though I promise, there is crazy to come. Please keeping reading, and review!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Natasha did not move her head to look, only allowed her eyes to flicker briefly down to the armrest between her and Loki, and a small smile forced its way onto her lips when she saw how tightly his hand was gripping the leather. Though it was quiet, she could just make out his elevated breath as the engine of the plane roared just outside their window.

''You will get used to it,'' she said beneath her breath, so that only Loki could hear. She usually did not go out of her way to be reassuring, but it was apparent that Loki was having a difficult time adjusting.

''I do not believe I will ever get used to traveling in a small metal box of death,'' Loki replied in a hiss.

''Keep your voice down,'' she snapped in a whisper. ''Aren't you supposed to be from some other world? How can you be afraid of something like this?''

Loki gritted his teeth, and she wasn't sure if it was from anger or from his unwillingness to disclose the words that next left his lips. ''I am not exactly myself, Agent Romanoff.''

''Natalie Rushman,'' she corrected him sharply. ''I am always Natalie Rushman when we leave headquarters. At least until we are given our new identifications.''

Loki said nothing.

Natasha sighed. ''What do you mean you are not yourself?'' she asked. ''Did you lie about who you are?''

''Do you think that if I had lied that I would readily expose that lie now?'' Loki asked her, but it was rhetorical and she did not answer. He sighed heavily before continuing. ''Think of it as I am sick, Lady Rushman. That I am a shell of the man that I was before.''

''Are you implying that you would be able to survive a place crash if you were whole?'' she questioned, her eyebrow raising in disbelief.

''Yes.''

His answer grounded her. A moment of silence passed as Natasha absorbed the information. ''Will you ever tell us what you were before?'' Natasha asked him finally. ''What you and Thor really are?''

Loki grimaced, just the barest flashing of his teeth. ''Did you not discover enough from my brother to make an educated guess?'' he asked, giving her a question in return for her own.

''We've had a few experiments here, a few accidents, a few natural mutations,'' Natasha explained, and the detachment in her voice drew Loki's attention. ''It made people more than human, more than what they were supposed to be. We know how to handle those. But what we saw of your brother...''

Natasha fell off for a moment, and Loki waited patiently for her to continue. ''If there is a whole world of people like him, it's not something we really know how to deal with.''

''It appears you know more than you think you do,'' Loki replied, and she did not know whether or not he meant it to be insulting.

The silence was thick between them for a long time, and it was as Natasha thought back on their conversation that something stood out. She looked to Loki, her brow furrowed and her lip twitching slightly in amusement. ''Lady Rushman?''

Loki blinked at her. ''It is the polite way of addressing a woman where I am from,'' he told her simply.

She shook her head, her lip twitching as she turned her attention forward and away from him.

''Perhaps you are not some otherworldly creature,'' she observed. ''Perhaps you are just a time traveler.''

''What?'' Loki asked her, his brow furrowing.

''Nothing, Doctor,'' she said, and it was not lost on Loki that this time the joke was at his own expense.

* * *

The plane landed in London, England. There was supposed to be a large gala that night for the lesser known figureheads of Europe, a gala Natasha and Loki were planning to attend. They were not so much lesser known as they were underground, their dealings less than favorable than would be publicly known.

It was a very polite way to say that they were dirty politicians that dealt in the black market. Drugs, back alley surgery, the sex trade.

It took Natasha a great deal of time after they got to the hotel to explain all of these concepts to Loki. She could have complained, but she held her tongue. Clint had not always been the brightest crayon in the box, and Loki caught on quickly enough.

When she was finished, she went to the singular table that was positioned by the window and reached beneath the wood. Loki raised an eyebrow when she pulled free the packet that had been secured there, and spilled the contents onto the table.

She gathered up half of the papers and tossed them onto the bed next to Loki, who had taken a seat on the edge. He fingered them absently.

''Something wrong?'' Natasha asked him.

''There is nothing like this where I am from,'' Loki told her. ''There is no one that would dare operate so lowly.'' A wry smile broke onto his lips suddenly. ''Well... Almost no one.''

''It sounds like a nice place,'' Natasha said honestly.

Her words chased his smile away, and Natasha watched as a sort of sadness glazed over his eyes.

''It is,'' Loki replied quietly.

He picked up the papers and read them over. Natasha had already explained the process of a false identity, so he did not ask her any questions. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as she approached the wardrobe and pulled the doors of it open, revealing the garments within.

''You change first,'' she instructed him, setting his suit on the bed beside him. ''I will take longer, and you need the extra time to memorize every detail of your identification since you will be doing most of the talking.''

Loki suppressed his displeasure of being ordered about, and did as she said. He did not bother to lock the door, just set the suit across the counter in the bathroom and began to undress.

* * *

When he emerged, Natasha could not help but openly stare at him. Loki adjusted his collar as she looked him over, suppressing the small smirk that threatened his lips due to her reaction.

It was a nice suit, especially for its simplicity. The black jacket was sharp and fitted, with matching slacks and socks. The shirt beneath was crisp and white, but it was the green and gold scarf that was draped elegantly over his shoulders that made the suit all that it was.

Without a word, Natasha broke her stare and disappeared into the bathroom with her own outfit to change as if she had not been effected by him at all.

Loki watched after her, his expression one of disbelief. Her moods changed so quickly and so thoroughly as if by a switch, and he had never known anyone besides himself that could accomplish such a feat. It was one of the less basic types of lies, one that had taken him ages to perfect.

She had not lied about it taking her much longer to get dressed. Loki had read his information four times over before she emerged from the bathroom, and he could not complain that any moment of that time had been wasted.

Besides a few wisps and curls that fell around and framed her face, her hair was pulled into a messy bun at the back of her head. The makeup around her eyes was dark, and it gave the impression of shadows that were both sensual and mysterious. Her lips were painted a deep, rich red that brought out the fire of her hair and in her eyes.

His eyes remained south for much longer, as he took in all that there was to see. The cocktail dress left less to the imagination than her jumpsuit, covering only the space between the middles of her thighs to the tops of the swells of her supple breasts. There was a rose made out of layered pieces of the dull fabric that lay flush against one side of her belly, but otherwise the dress was plain.

Loki looked down to his papers. ''It says you are my companion to this event, but I do not have a wife,'' he said, with just the hint of a question in his voice.

''I am definitely not your wife, Dr. Hiddleston,'' Natasha mused, and Loki raised an eyebrow at the dark glint in her eye. It took him only a fraction of a second to realize that she was playing her part.

Loki looked to the clock, noting that it was nearly time for the gala to begin. He stood from the edge of the bed and offered Natasha his arm. He was all for playing games, so much so that it had earned him his title.

''Shall we, Miss Johansson?''

With a small smile playing on her lips, Natasha took his arm, and they walked together from the room.

* * *

Author's Note: I know, my fake names weren't especially creative. But they serve the purpose well enough. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

The gala was being held in the mansion of one of the politicians, a man by the name of Anthony Stone. He had won his place on the Cabinet through bribery, blackmail, and the untimely death of his strongest opponent. He was also S.H.I.E.L.D.'s primary target for the night.

The mansion was beautiful, with ivory walls that reached high into the sky and formed elegant peaks just beneath the stars. The moonlight made it seem to glow despite all the dark that loomed inside. The pathway down was lined with dim white lights, and once Natasha and Loki had been approved for entry they made their way down the winding road.

Natasha glanced up at Loki, and found his eyes absently taking in the sight. He ignored the people completely, looking only to the beautiful tower before them. He felt her eyes on him after a moment and looked down to her.

''It reminds me of home,'' he said, answering her silent question.

Natasha looked away from him, taking in the sight too, but she did not have appreciation for such things, at least not in the middle of a mission. Her attention was quickly drawn away by the people around them, watching them as they maneuvered through the crowd.

''We're drawing a lot of attention,'' Natasha said with a small smile. She watched as a passing group of women gawked openly at Loki, and she forced herself not to tense when she felt the barest brush of fingers across her back as a man walked by.

''Is that a problem?'' Loki asked her seriously.

''No,'' she said. ''That means they will come to you.''

They did not dare speak openly again once they entered the mansion. They were immediately offered champagne, and both took a glass before delving further into the grand room. It was already packed to the brim, and Natasha made mental notes of all the other politicians and their stations around the room.

It did not take long for Natasha's statement to come true, though it was not Anthony Stone that sought them out as she had hoped. The politician was from Spain, and his accent was heavy when he introduced himself.

''My name is Rafael Alvaro,'' he said, offering his hand to Loki.

Loki gave it a firm shake, and Natasha almost believed that the smile on his face was genuine. ''Tom Hiddleston,'' he said.

''You sound like you are from here, but I was told you are from America,'' Alvaro commented.

''My parents were originally from London,'' Loki lied fluidly. ''I moved to the United States to attend medical school when I was fifteen.''

''You look so young. I would never have pegged you for a doctor,'' the man said, his eyebrows raising slightly on his forehead. When the surprise passed, he looked to Natasha. ''And who is this lovely woman on your arm?''

''Scarlett,'' she replied simply, but the way she said the name made it sound like velvet passing over her tongue.

The man blinked in surprise, and looked her over for a long moment, his pulse jumping erratically in his throat. He was silent for so long that it grew uncomfortable, and Loki cleared his throat absently to return the attention to himself.

''You are a lucky man,'' Alvaro said, his voice wavering slightly as he spoke.

''I am more than aware of that,'' Loki replied silkily, and Natasha felt the urge to roll her eyes at his implication.

Before Alvaro could say anything more, a man appeared on the balcony above all of their heads and snapped his fingers. He was large, faceless, and wearing all black. A bodyguard.

Alvaro's head snapped up, as well as the heads of every other politician in the room. They all looked away when they realized the bodyguard only had eyes for Alvaro. He motioned toward Loki and Natasha, and jerked his arm back with his fist clenched and his thumb extended.

''Oh, it looks like Stone wants to see you,'' Alvaro said aloud, his eyebrows raised. He looked to Loki, and grinned wryly. ''It looks like you will be getting lucky twice tonight.''

* * *

Natasha felt bile rise in her throat when she saw Anthony Stone, as it always did whenever she first laid eyes on her target. He was a good looking man, at least on the outside, and she forced the bile back down.

She wondered vaguely if he bought the sultry smile on her lips when she met his eyes, or if he didn't care if she was willing. She knew as well as he did that when his business with Loki was done, she would not be leaving the room with him. Loki had been uncomfortable with the idea, but Natasha assured him that she would be quite alright.

''Mr. Stone, it is an honor to have been invited to your event tonight,'' Loki said politely, feigning nervousness as he held out his hand. Stone waved his bodyguards back when they moved forward defensively, and he gave Loki's hand a firm shake.

''I was quite pleased that you answered my invitation,'' Stone said formally. ''You were the only doctor I reached out to in the United States that took the bait. I did not know Americans to be so prudish.''

It never failed to surprise Natasha how thoroughly S.H.I.E.L.D. prepared their missions. The planted information must have taken months to perfect and sustain. Loki coming along to play the doctor had been pure luck. Clint would never have been able to pull it off, undercover (unless tucked far away in a bush with his bow) was not his specialty.

''Perhaps they are so far in debt that they have finally learned to fear money?'' Loki replied wryly, and it earned him a hearty laugh from Anthony Stone. Natasha giggled beside him.

With an amused smile still playing on his lips, Stone continued. ''It is apparent that you do not fear money, nor everything else that I am offering.''

''The others will catch on,'' Loki assured him. ''Your business is exactly what America needs. I would be honored to be the agent to build that bridge with you.''

''I'm putting a lot of faith in you, Dr. Hiddleston,'' Stone said.

''I assure you it is well placed,'' Loki stated smoothly.

Stone's eyes flickered to Natasha, and a long moment of silence passed between them. Natasha had her hand on Loki's arm, and she squeezed it threateningly. Loki did not look to her, refusing to take the bait. Stone seemed to notice this as well.

''A token of faith would not be unreasonable,'' Stone said, looking back to Loki. ''An insurance of your commitment.''

''Of course,'' Loki replied, and though the words were polite and apologetic, Natasha could feel the tension in his body.

Stone held out his hand to Loki, who took it without hesitation. ''It has been a pleasure meeting you. I will have a few of my business partners hash out the details with you after you return to the party.'' When he released Loki's hand, it did not return to his side.

He held his hand out for Natasha, and she slipped hers delicately in place. Loki was led from the room, and the bodyguards did not return after he was gone. It was officially Natasha's turn to play her part, but it was one she had played many times.

He led her to his bed, and she led him to his death.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Look forward to super (hopefully) awesome action in the next chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Once they were outside of the door, one bodyguard remained stationed just outside while the other led Loki downstairs. He did not speak the entire time, but it was assumed that he was leading Loki to the others. They passed through the crowd of people on the lower level easily, and disappeared into a separate room off to the side.

There was a rectangular table in the center of the room, and each of the six chairs stationed around it was filled, save for one.

Alvaro motioned to the empty chair, and Loki obligingly sat down. Alvaro introduced each of the other four men to him, but Loki did not bother to listen. He knew these men, knew their names and faces and the crimes they had committed. He had been handed the men he had come to kill on a silver platter.

Once the door was secured behind the guard, Loki did not waste any time. Natasha had told him to bide his time, but he did not feel it necessary to wait. The guard would not dare come inside to interrupt their meeting, not unless Stone himself had instructed him to, and as far as Loki was concerned, Stone was otherwise busy with Natasha.

''Would you like a business card?'' he asked, after one of the gentlemen had inquired about his use in their business. It had been an innocent enough question, but there had been malice in the man's voice when he had asked it. Loki absently wondered if one of the women that had been lusting after him during the party was his companion, if that is what had brought the flame of the man's anger.

It confused Loki, that sort of possessiveness. Maybe if he had a woman of his own, he would understand, but he had never yearned for such a thing. Besides his brother, Loki had always been alone.

Loki reached innocently into his jacket pocket, and all of the men at the table visibly tensed. Natasha had warned him about sudden movements, or taking his hand from view. Apparently criminals were not a very trusting people.

Loki feigned embarrassment as he pretended to fumble for the card, and the men relaxed. Him looking disheveled made them less suspicious, but it was a mistake on their part. Loki would not be the God of Mischief is he was not good at playing pretend.

The knives sunk home with only the smallest sounds, and the men blinked in shock a few times before they slumped in their chairs. Blood dripped down the blades that stuck between their eyes, and fell in rivets to pool on the table and floor.

No sounds, no movement in the doorway, and Loki slipped out the window and into the night without even the slightest bit of resistance.

* * *

Natasha suppressed a groan when Stone rested his weight on top of her. There had been no pleasantries, no words shared before he had tossed her on the bed and crawled aboard. He was not a large man, but Natasha was petite, so the weight he did have on his frame took its toll.

Natasha linked her leg around his side and rolled them over so that she was in control, sitting astride him. He grinned in anticipation, and his eyes had already glazed over with lust. Stone may have been intelligent enough to head the entire black market in Europe, but he was still a man. It was that basic, masculine trait that Natasha's skills relied on, and it had yet to fail her.

''That man promised me a new life,'' Natasha said breathlessly, feigning the same overpowering lust that had claimed the man beneath her. He sat up slowly and wrapped his arms around her. She would have thought it was a hug if his hands hadn't started fumbling with her zipper. ''He said there was going to be a new black market in America and he was going to run it.''

Stone snorted into her neck as he pulled the zipper down. ''He will be lucky to head medical.''

She pulled back, feigning horror. ''That's all? He said he would be rich.''

Stone pulled the top of her dress down, exposing her breasts. She hadn't worn a bra with the dress, and Stone did not seem to mind.

''He'll make a pretty penny from surgeries, but you might want to aim that shovel higher,'' he told her. She suppressed a roll of her eyes at the implication that she was a gold digger, since that was exactly what she was supposed to be. He reached up and cupped her breasts, rolling them roughly in his hands.

''The best money is in drugs. We already have a drug man in America, he's getting a shipment in Florida as we speak,'' Stone told her, and Natasha suppressed a grin at her victory. It never failed to surprise her how easily men gave their secrets away in a bed. ''His name is Sean Matthews. I can send you his way when we are done.''

He started to take off his shirt, but there was no need for the night to progress any further.

Her blow was quick, and sharp, and he never saw it coming. He only felt the pain a few seconds after she had struck, and the only sound that escaped his lips was the blood bubbling in his throat from his busted windpipe.

Most went into shock after that, and her job from there was simple. But Stone was not a man to go down without a fight.

He tossed her to the side and crawled on top of her. Blood spilled from his angry lips and onto her face and chest, and he jerked his knee into her stomach. He was too big for her to block the blow, and she heard the rib crack more than she felt it.

She winced as she managed to get a leg around him to roll them back over, but he knew that if she did the fight would be over. He kept his weight on her, and it forced the breath from her lungs. Despite the black that edged her vision, she used what could have been the last of her consciousness to throw him off.

His body gave, and she followed him onto the floor to keep his body from slamming against the hard wood and drawing the guards attention. She saw him glance toward the door as if he had read her thoughts, and she knew he was going to try to make some sort of noise to get the guards attention.

She twisted his neck, and the dull snap was music to her ears.

She held his face in her hands to keep his head from slamming into the floor, and his body went completely limp beneath her. She slowly got onto her feet, her eyes all for the doors, and when no one came bursting through she moved silently toward the bed.

She used a corner of the sheet to wipe what she could of Stone's blood from her skin, and returned her dress to its proper place. She swept the room for any evidence that S.H.I.E.L.D. could use, tucked a few papers into her dress, and climbed out the window.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

When Loki returned to the hotel room, Natasha was already there. He saw her glance up from the computer on her lap to acknowledge him, before looking back to the screen.

''I'll email you the papers I found. They have the shipment number,'' she told Fury. ''You should be able to catch Matthews down at the shipping yard and arrest him without any incident.''

''Good work, Agent Romanoff,'' Director Fury said, and Loki moved to sit beside Natasha on the bed. ''Good to see you survived your first mission, Agent Laufeyson.''

''Is that not common?'' Loki asked.

Director Fury did not answer him. ''Were you successful?''

''Yes,'' Loki replied simply.

''Good,'' Director Fury replied. ''I'll have you both write up reports when you return tomorrow. I'll send a clean-up crew in a few days to eliminate the stragglers that surface from the organization, while you two take a well-deserved break. Good work, both of you.''

With that, the screen went black, and Natasha closed the lid of the laptop. She went to put it on the table, and it was only then that Loki noticed that she was favoring one side. He scanned her over for more injuries, and his eyes widened when he saw the blood.

''You were injured?'' he asked.

''He put up more fight than I was expecting,'' she said with a wince. She saw where his eyes were looking and shook her head. ''The blood isn't mine. Only the busted rib.''

She grabbed some clothes from the wardrobe and headed for the bathroom. ''I'm going to shower first, if you don't mind.''

''I do not mind,'' Loki replied.

She moved through the doorway, but hesitated before closing the door. ''Would you mind helping me bandage my rib when I am done?'' she asked carefully.

Loki shook his head, and she flashed him a grateful smile before closing the door.

* * *

When Natasha emerged, she was wearing a loose shirt and a small pair of shorts. Loki suppressed the urge to run his eyes up the long lengths of her legs, exposed as they were. She had a small bundle of medical supplies in her hands, and she set them next to her when she sat down on the bed.

Natasha noticed Loki had changed while she was in the bathroom. He had abandoned his suit for loose grey sweats and a matching shirt that fit tightly to his toned chest. She felt her eyes drawn over the outlines of the taunt muscles, and she swallowed hard.

It bothered her that she was attracted to him. It was not a problem she had ever had with Clint, and something she had ignored before because of the impending mission. She knew her body was heightened because of all the events of the night, but still she was angry when things low in her body responded to the man in front of her.

Natasha jumped when she felt Loki's fingers at the hem of her shirt, absorbed as she was by the thoughts in her head. He ignored her, and pushed the fabric up to expose her flat belly. His fingers were cold where his skin grazed hers, and Natasha felt her breasts respond accordingly. It did not escape either of them that her nipples were blatantly straining against the fabric of the shirt.

Loki cleared his throat absently, and he resumed his task. He lifted the shirt further, until the large purple bruise on her side was fully exposed. He forfeited the hem of the shirt to Natasha so that he could handle the bandages she had brought from the bathroom, and started applying them delicately.

''You know what you are doing,'' Natasha said, her tone holding the questing her statement had not.

''I have been in many battles,'' he reminded her.

She was silent for a long moment, thinking what to say to fill the time while he smoothed the bandages over her stomach. When a question occurred to her, she hesitated before asking it. He could feel the tension suddenly enter her body, and he looked up in confusion. ''Did I hurt you?'' he asked.

She shook her head. ''No,'' she said. ''I was just wondering about something.''

His hands stilled against her belly as he waited for her to continue, his work only halfway done.

''Who did you fight?'' Natasha asked carefully. ''Who were your battles against?''

Loki did not answer her immediately, and his tongue rolled in his mouth as he considered whether or not to answer. Finally, he decided that there was no harm in it and explained. ''Thor and I used to get into a lot of trouble as children. Sometimes we would battle the elves, but often we would find ourselves in altercations with the giants.''

''You never knew humans until you came here,'' she stated, and Loki nodded his head in confirmation. He watched her for a long moment, and she allowed him to in silence.

''Something tells me that was not the question you truly wished to ask me, Agent Romanoff,'' Loki surmised.

She pressed her lips into a tight line, and a few minutes passed before she spoke. ''Did you feel anything when you killed those people tonight?''

Loki blinked in surprise. His tongue twisted in his mouth again, as he contemplated how to answer her.

''No,'' he said finally.

''Does human life mean anything to you?'' she asked.

''It does not,'' he answered her honestly. He resumed applying her bandages, but his fingers hesitated when he thought of something to add. ''Perhaps I will learn though.''

''Are you going to be here long enough?'' she questioned.

The side of Loki's lip turned up, though it was not necessarily in amusement. ''You ask a lot of questions, Agent Romanoff,'' he stated wearily, without looking up to her.

She did not say anything, just waited for him to answer her. ''You are implying that it will take long for me to care?'' he inquired back.

Natasha was silent for a long time, and Loki recognized her silence as one that often plagued him. It was a silence that meant she was questioning whether or not to tell him something personal, important. She took so long to answer that he finished bandaging her and had given up expectation of one.

Just as he pulled away, she spoke. ''It took me a long time to care.''

Loki slowly sat back on his heels, and looked up at her as he waited for her to continue.

''I was raised in a place where human life meant nothing. I was raised to not care, to not feel,'' she said, her face and voice completely void of emotion. She was looking at him, but he felt like she was looking through him.

''It would be a lie if I said I cared about that man I killed tonight,'' she told him honestly. She looked at him, as if waiting for him to react in some way. He did not, and it made him wonder who she had confided in before whose reaction had scarred her. ''But it is not a lie to say I care about the people that he hurt, the people that he killed.''

''You did not know those people,'' Loki stated, his brow furrowing in confusion.

She shook her head. ''They remind me of my past.''

''Were you like them once?'' he asked her before he could think to stop himself.

Natasha blinked past the bloody memories of all of her victims as they flashed before her eyes, the innocent women and children she had slaughtered for Russia. She shook her head.

''You were like him? Like Stone?'' Loki asked her, again without thinking to pause, the words forcing themselves out like they had a mind of their own. What was this woman, that she demanded such curiosity from him that he had lost his carefully constructed control?

Her eyes moved to him like a hawk, and it was his answer.

He failed to react again. He just blinked at her, silently watching her. Though her face remained blank, her mind was working a thousand miles per hour behind her eyes.

Before she could focus on any one thought, Loki interrupted her.

''We all have things to repent for,'' he said to her. The words felt strange leaving his lips, as he had never been in a position to comfort. He was not lost to the fact that Natasha had tried her own hand at comforting him earlier on the plane, so he let this moment of weakness pass.

''What did you do that was so bad that you didn't react to that little insight of my past?'' Natasha demanded. ''What do you have to repent for?'' Perhaps she did not need comfort, but an outlet for the pent up anger she had for herself.

Loki did not answer, and Natasha did not wait for him to. She stood up from the bed, her body rigid as if she were a robot. Without any more words spoken between them, she turned off the light, slipped beneath the covers, and did not move again that night.

Loki found his way later, much later, to the couch that sat beside the bed. Sleep overcame him quickly despite the thoughts that ran rampant in his head, but the calm did not last long.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The plot develops further in the next chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

For the second night in the short time that he had been with S.H.I.E.L.D., Loki was rudely awoken from his slumber. This time, Natasha was not standing before him, but he heard her moving around across the hotel room. He sat up enough to see her slipping from under the covers of the bed to flip the screeching laptop open. He was surprised at how graceful she was even in the middle of the night, and he questioned if she had even been asleep at all.

Loki gave a small sigh of relief when the noise died, and he pressed his index finger to his temple to ease the throbbing. It was very apparent that humans did not value sleep as much as the Asgardians, but Loki did not want to alienate himself further by complaining about such a trivial thing. He would adjust eventually.

Loki abandoned the couch that he had used as a bed to join Natasha's side, taking his position just as Director Fury's image assaulted the screen. The image blurred and fizzed, and such a loud noise emanated from the speakers that Loki almost wished the other sound back in its place.

Director Fury was barely visible in the screen, the background giving almost no light to him. Loki spared a glance at Natasha, and found her brow furrowed and her expression grave. Her face told him that this awkward transmission was not a common thing.

''Director, what's happening?'' she demanded.

''We're under attack,'' Director Fury shouted to her over the noise, his demeanor calm despite the situation. ''The Tesseract created some kind of portal. Something came through and attacked us. It's not human.''

Loki felt a sudden anger burn in his veins. Natasha seemed to sense it, because she spoke before he could. ''I thought you stopped the experiments?'' she said, though it was more of a question than a statement.

Director Fury's face was grave, but it held no remorse or sentiment. ''I authorized the experiments to continue.''

Loki moved forward to speak, his anger bubbling in his throat about to spill over, but Natasha touched his arm to calm him.

It did not so much calm him as surprise him, and he turned to look at her. While he was distracted, Natasha told Fury they would head straight to headquarters to help and slammed the laptop shut.

She did not look at him as she started throwing the few things they had brought with them into a duffel bag. He watched after her, his anger keeping him frighteningly still. Natasha didn't look at him, knowing the moment she did she would be the target of it.

In the end he did not wait for her to. He stood just as she was about to pass him, and she stopped dead in her tracks. He used her surprise against her, moving forward and forcing her back and into a wall.

''Why did he authorize it?'' he demanded of her. ''I told him the consequences he would face.''

''We don't have time for this-'' she started, but he slammed his hand against the wall beside her head. She was not angry, not at Director Fury, and it meant that she understood his motivations, at least enough not to question his decision.

She swallowed hard, and for only the smallest moment he saw a flicker of panic in her eyes at being cornered by an angry man she knew nothing about. Her face was blank not a moment later, and she raised her chin defiantly, though it was more in defiance of her fear than of him.

''I do not know for sure,'' Natasha told him. He opened his mouth to argue, but she held up a hand. ''I have my suspicions of his intent,'' she admitted. ''I will think on sharing them with you after we stop whatever came through the portal.''

Loki said nothing, just moved abruptly away from the wall. He paced the room as she resumed packing, though he felt her eyes watching him every now and then.

As he paced, his anger continued to grow and bubble in his veins, rising and rising to the brim until it finally spilled over.

''I cannot believe I am subject to the stupidity of your race after only such a short time here,'' Loki spat at her suddenly, and her hands stilled of their task. Her fists closed over the fabric of her bloodied dress that she had been in the process of shoving into the duffel bag, and her face was expressionless as she looked to him.

''I knew of your shortcomings, but I did not expect this magnificent of a fault,'' he seethed, speaking between his teeth clenched in anger.

There was a long moment of silence before Natasha braved to speak. ''Are you finished?'' she asked, and he saw just the slightest flicker of anger in her eyes.

''Hardly,'' he said, approaching her again. This time he did not catch her off guard, and she stood her ground even as he invaded her personal space.

''I was not meant to be here. I was meant to be so much more than this,'' he said, and though the words came out angry Natasha could see the barest hint of fear in his emerald eyes. ''I will die for your mistakes as if they are my own before I am ever to live up to my potential.''

''You know what came through the portal?'' she questioned, surprised by the extreme of his reaction.

''No,'' he said, his anger dissipating, and he moved back from her and ran a hand nervously through his hair. ''No, but I have a few ideas.''

He looked to her, and his eyes were wide. There was no anger left, only fear.

''Whatever has come through the portal, Agent Romanoff,'' he said to her, his voice grave enough to make her heart race and her fear spike in her veins. ''You are not prepared for it.''

* * *

He was right.

Clint had been out on mission in Germany when the attack happened, so he swung by in a S.H.I.E.L.D. issue aircraft and picked them up in London. They made it back to headquarters in record time, but even by then the place had been nearly completely destroyed and abandoned.

The Tesseract was gone, but the portal remained.

Director Fury ordered them to search the building for any agents left behind while he and Agent Hill secured the Tesseract, as well as eliminate any alien life force that remained at the site. It was unlikely that they would find anyone, at least not alive, and they needed to be out before the portal collapsed.

They split up to make the search quicker, though Natasha was hesitant to leave Loki alone. It was partly due to the fact that he was from another world himself and couldn't be trusted. Mostly, she worried that if anything happened to him they would lose a valuable insight on what this alien life force was and what they wanted.

When she watched him disappear, it was with a heavy heart.

* * *

Loki knew the second they stepped off of the aircraft what exactly had come through the portal. The stench of the Chitauri's wretchedness was one known to all, so ingrained that one did not have to encounter a Chitauri to know it.

It was confirmed when Loki passed by a sole dead warrior as he explored the wreckage of the human military base. He stepped over its deformed, twisted body with an expression that barely masked his disgust.

He was only searching for fifteen minutes when he felt a shiver run through the remnants of the building, alerting him that the portal was close to collapsing. Director Fury's voice buzzed over the speaker a moment later, calling for everyone to evacuate immediately, but a noise just a short distance from Loki made him ignore the warning.

He ventured down the pitch black hallway after the noise, but as he moved further he noticed that there was an unearthly light illuminating from the depths. It made him hesitant, weary of his human body and how it could hold up against the Chitauri.

Loki stopped dead when he could finally see the source of the light, and his breath left him in a ghost of a gasp. The figure stepped into the light its spear was casting, the energy at the center of the blade the blue of the Tesseract itself. Loki was in such awe of the creature before him that he did not move even as the spear started down in his direction.

The figure stopped its movement only a moment before the blade would have struck home, and withdrew the threat entirely. ''I know of you,'' the figure said, it's voice deep and haunting. A tremor of foreboding and fear ran through Loki, and he swallowed hard.

''The Fallen One.''

''Is that what they are calling me now?'' he asked, smirking bitterly despite the fear choking in his throat.

''There are other names for you,'' the figure stated. He did not say any more than that. ''Do you know who I am, Asgardian?''

There were not many history books that included the Chitauri, but Loki had delved into the deepest depths and crevices of the palace library when he was a child. He had seen the crude drawings, the shakily scribbled descriptions of the man that stood before him. He knew to fear him, to loathe him, even before his name escaped his lips for confirmation.

''The Other.''

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry it took me so long to post. Look forward to the assembly of the rest of the Avengers in the next chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Natasha stared with wide eyes at the crater that had once been S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Clint stood at her back, watching her silently as she waited at the edge and stared off into the wreckage.

Clint touched her arm, trying to move her away and to their waiting aircraft, but she would not budge.

''It's been two hours, Nat,'' he said. ''He should have gotten out when Director Fury gave the order.''

She did not say anything, just crossed her arms over her chest, and the movement freed her arm of Clint's hand. He let his hand fall to his side with a sigh.

''You didn't even know him that long. You don't owe him this,'' he said to her. ''You don't owe him to wait. He was some hostile alien life force, just like the things that did this.''

''He was valuable,'' she said, her voice lacking even the slightest shred of emotion. Clint frowned at her back, knowing she only got that way when she was hiding how she truly felt.

''Did you like him?'' he asked her. Natasha did not look at him, and he did not know what that meant. Even after knowing her for years now, she was still mostly unreadable to him.

''He had a lot of potential,'' was all she said.

''Natasha-'' Clint started, but he didn't have a chance to finish.

There was a rustling of rocks from inside the crater, and despite Clint's protests Natasha braved to move closer to the edge to look over. What she saw made her fall to her knees to reach down into the space, and Clint's eyebrows rose when he saw a hand emerge from the dark.

Loki wrapped his hand around Natasha's arm just above her elbow, mirroring her grip on his own arm, and they both grunted as she helped lift him over the lip of the crater. They collapsed on the solid desert surface, and Clint rushed to their side.

''You're alive,'' Natasha breathed, grunting as she forced herself up onto her hands and knees. Loki stayed on his back, staring up at the sky that was still dark from the night. It seemed impossible that they had been in London only a few hours before.

''It would appear so,'' he replied breathlessly. He ignored Clint's hand as he reached down to help him stand, and pushed himself slowly onto his feet. Natasha was up a moment later, and they followed Clint silently back toward the aircraft.

Halfway there, Loki fell to his knee at Natasha's side, weakened and injured. She caught his arm, and just the slightest flash of concern on her face kept him from pulling away. He let her help him to his feet and the rest of the way to the aircraft.

* * *

''The helicarrier is up and running,'' Clint told Natasha from the cockpit of the aircraft, who was in the back of the plane tending to Loki's wounds. ''Director Fury sent me the coordinates, as well as some unfortunate news. You wouldn't believe who is on board right now.''

''Who?'' Natasha asked. She ignored Loki's curse as she cleaned one of the wounds on his forehead, mostly because it was in a language she couldn't understand. He moved to brush her hand away, but the plane gave a jerk and his hands fell to grip the armrests at his sides.

Clint shook his head, though Natasha couldn't see from the back of the plane. ''I will let it be a surprise.''

Loki let out a hiss at the sting of the alcohol pad against a cut on his cheek. ''Stop being a baby,'' she said, and she ignored when his eyes narrowed at her. He looked like a petulant child, and she barely kept the amused smile from her lips.

''How did you survive that?'' she asked suddenly, her hand falling away. She sat back on her heels as she looked up at him, waiting for him to answer. Her face had gone serious, and Loki pressed his lips into a thin line.

''I ran into one of the Chitauri just as the portal collapsed,'' he said. ''I do not remember the rest.''

Natasha kept her face blank, but inside her thoughts were running wildly. She opened her mouth to speak, but Clint beat her to it. ''The Chitauri?'' he asked.

Loki did not answer him, letting him make the connection himself.

Natasha frowned openly this time. ''Why did so few of them come through? Fury said there were only a few dozen.''

''I do not know,'' Loki replied, and his words tasted sour on her tongue. Her brow furrowed at the lie, but he continued before she could question it. ''Perhaps they did not think it would require more to defeat you.''

Natasha ignored the insult, and went back to cleaning his wounds. She pressed too indelicately to a wound on his neck and his hand caught her wrist in a vise. She gasped in surprise, and he pulled her in threateningly close.

Natasha's pulse jumped in her throat, so fervent that it nearly choked her. She could feel his cool breath on her face, and it made her head swim. That frightened her, scared her. She did not look down to his hand where it held her wrist in a painful grip, but she could not stop the pain from showing in her eyes.

Loki saw her wince and he eased his grip, forgetting his strength. He could not read this woman, and it disturbed him more than he liked. He could tell she was suspicious of him, but nothing more than that. He felt his freshly returned magic buzzing on his skin, itching for a target.

He released her so suddenly that she fell back onto the floor, and the image of her sprawled out in front of him, helpless for only one short moment stirred strange feelings inside of him.

Her face was blank and it did not give away her fear, and he wondered if in that moment she knew that something was different. Loki watched as she picked herself up from the ground and joined Clint in the cockpit, leaving him alone without another word spoken.

* * *

Loki was not especially fond of the new S.H.I.E.L.D. base, but he was glad that the flying vessel was bigger than the one he had been on with Natasha and Clint. After they flew in to the landing bay, they were immediately ushered to the control center where Director Fury was waiting for them. He was by no means alone.

Natasha brushed past Loki as she ran forward, and a man scooped her up into his arms. ''Tony!'' she exclaimed, and Loki saw Clint grimace with distaste out of the corner of his eye.

''Now now, Tasha,'' Tony Stark said. ''What would Pepper think?''

''I'm not the one that has to worry about the backlash,'' she reminded him, and he frowned as he set her down.

''Too true,'' he said. She looked to the others, and her expression was less familiar. Loki stayed back as Clint moved forward to greet the others along with her.

''Doctor Banner, Steve Rogers,'' Clint said, shaking the hands of the two men he had listed. Natasha did the same, before she rejoined Loki's side.

''Is this your new puppy?'' Tony asked Director Fury as he moved forward to stand in front of Loki.

''I bite,'' Loki replied icily, understanding Tony's insult despite its childishness.

Tony grinned wryly. ''Funny.''

''He is the brother of the alien life force that visited us a few weeks ago in New Mexico,'' Director Fury said. ''His name is Loki. He's Agent Romanoff's partner.''

''But weren't you two-?'' Tony started to question, waving a finger between Natasha and Clint. One look from Natasha and he changed the subject. ''Don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence that these guys attacked headquarters just a short while after Loki here joined us on Earth?''

''I assure you, I had nothing to do with their attack,'' Loki replied calmly, and Tony smirked at him.

''Your name is derived from Norse mythology,'' Tony said. ''Loki is the God of Mischief, known for his lies, manipulations, and his silver tongue.''

''Did it occur to you that perhaps the myth of Norse is derived from me, instead of the other way around?'' Loki replied silkily. Tony pressed his lips into a hard line, adopting the arrogant expression he used when he was trying to solve a complex equation with missing variables.

''Forgive me if I do not believe you then,'' Tony replied snarkily.

''It was not for you that my words were meant,'' Loki said, his eyes flickering to Director Fury.

''You say that you were not involved with these creatures, but do you know what they are?'' Fury asked him.

''He called them the Chitauri,'' Clint supplied.

''Let us go to the debriefing room then and you can fill us in,'' Director Fury said, his good eye trained on Loki's face.

Loki bowed his head slightly. ''Very well,'' he said. ''Though I can not promise much. They are a mysterious species even to my people.''

''Oh, and while we're there,'' Tony interjected. ''You can explain what exactly you expect to accomplish with the Avengers Initiative.''

Loki frowned, and looked to Natasha.

''The Avengers?''

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please continue reading and reviewing!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

In the end, the meeting in the debriefing room did not accomplish much. Loki had very little to say about the Chitauri, and Director Fury appeared to be very tight lipped about what his purpose was for assembling the motley group of superheroes.

''To deal with the pending threat,'' was all he really said about it.

With two days without another incident, Director Fury took the Avengers off high alert and set them about different tasks. Since the Tesseract was still safely in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D., he had Tony Stark and Bruce Banner join Erik Selvig and the other scientists that had survived the attack in studying it. The alien technology was beyond Steve Roger and Clint Barton's comprehension, so they agreed to hold down the fort while Natasha and Loki went abroad on another mission.

Loki seemed reluctant to leave the helicarrier, and it was only Natasha that caught his eye lingering on the glowing blue cube as it was being moved across the air base while they were being given their assignment. He felt her eyes on him during those few moments, but when he turned his attention back to Director Fury before them he made sure his face gave nothing away.

* * *

They suited up and headed to the landing bay, their cover not requiring them to take public transportation. It was an assassination mission, rather than information gathering. They were not meant to be discovered en route.

Loki sat beside Natasha in the cockpit, his grip of steel ever present on the armrests. Natasha went through the flight procedures, her actions as rigid and robotic as her voice. There was no part for her to play, no romancing. She was in mission mode, cold and hard and emotionless.

There were no words spoken for the majority of the flight. It was only when they were nearly there that Loki broke the silence.

''Flying is not so painful when I can see the sky,'' he commented, not looking to Natasha but through the glass window before him. Though the sky was dark, the stars twinkled in the sky and reflected in his emerald eyes.

Natasha pressed her lips into a tight line. ''I thought you seemed less frightened than normal,'' she remarked. Her tone made Loki turn his attention to her, his brow furrowing. She kept her gaze to the front, even though she felt his eyes burning into her.

''You sound suspicious of it,'' he commented boldly. ''Were you not the woman who told me that I would get used to it?''

''That was before you told me your reason behind it,'' Natasha replied. ''You said it would not be frightening if you were... whole. It would not be frightening because you could survive it. Are you whole again?''

Loki's eyebrows shot up, and he was thankful that Natasha had not been looking at him to catch the expression. He quickly masked it, just in time for her fire eyes to flicker in his direction. He opted for feigning insult in the face of her.

''Tell me, Agent Romanoff, how such a thing could have happened?'' he asked, his voice calm but laced with poison. ''Such a thing would mean that I have been accepted back home, that I have earned my place beside my father. Do you think I would be here if it had?''

''I do not pretend to know your motivations,'' she said carefully, and Loki turned away from her. It was both an admission of her misplaced accusations, and an admission of her continued suspicions. It left room for her to be right, and for her to be wrong. He would have admired her silver tongue if it hadn't been used against him.

''When Director Fury mentioned that we would be going to Russia,'' Loki started, changing the subject. ''You did not seemed pleased.''

Natasha pressed her lips into a tight line again. He could tell that she wanted to press the former topic, but in the end she relented. ''I am from Russia.''

''You are not looking forward to going home?'' he questioned, one eyebrow raising slightly.

''We are going to go kill someone. It is not like this trip is for fun,'' she reminded him. Loki smirked slightly at the warmth of her tone. ''Besides, Russia hasn't been home for a long time.''

Loki's tongue twisted in his mouth, and his smirk faded into a frown. ''When I think of the golden skies of Asgard, it still warms my heart,'' he said, and when Natasha looked to him again, his eyes were far away. ''It seems sad that such a sight, no matter our reason for your return, will not move you so,'' he finished quietly.

''It is weak to be moved by such sentiment,'' she replied, her tone gone completely neutral again.

Loki smirked widely this time, though Natasha did not see it. ''I think perhaps when I was first convicted for my crimes, my heart still burned with sentiment. For my family, for the place I yearned for in their hearts. Exile has made me bitter, Agent Romanoff,'' he said honestly. ''Do not make the mistake of thinking me weak.''

She did not say anything to that, and instead prepared the plane for landing. When she did break the silence, it was with a question. ''Is that the name of the place you are from? Asgard?'' she asked.

Loki's lips twitched with irritation. ''Yes,'' he replied haughtily. ''You may report that to your Director Fury.''

Her expression did not change with his implications, and it made Loki frown. What had happened to this girl, that she was the way she was? Empty, a shell of a person. The perfect soldier, capable of obedience and the most complex of lies.

There was no more time for talk, as Natasha was lowering the plane into a jagged area of land and she needed to concentrate. On instinct Loki's fingers dug into the armrest, and he hoped that Natasha did not see the imprints that they had made in the metal. It was not the doing of a mere human.

The landing was rough, but the plane remained intact. After they abandoned it, Loki watched the superficial metal of the plane shimmer and color to match its surrounding environment. Natasha did not even pause to admire the magic of it before making off into a dense crowding of trees.

Loki followed after her, his lips pressed so tightly together in irritation that they were white. He took his place at her side as they ghosted silently through the brush.

It was hours before they reached the edge of the cliff they were on and breached the border of trees. They stayed hidden as they surveyed the building that was now in their sight, the concrete structure looking especially cold and unwelcoming.

''Director Fury told me who was meant to be killed, but not the reason. He did not explain because you already know the reason, am I correct?'' Loki asked, so lowly that Natasha barely picked up his words over the breeze that swam by.

''Yes,'' she replied simply, and her eyes focused so solely on their destination let him know that she did not plan to explain further.

''We will have to survey this place for hours,'' Loki pressed. ''That is more than enough time to explain.''

Natasha finally looked at him. ''From what I read about your brother, he was irrational and had a childish temper.''

''I am not my brother,'' Loki replied, understanding the reason for her statement. She was surprised that he knew the procedure for a mission such as this. ''I am a creature of patience. We are going to take a life, it is not something that can be rushed.''

She was silent for a moment, and then she nodded sharply. ''Let's make a round of the building, and then I will start.''

''Very well.''

* * *

They ended in the same spot they had begun, and both mentally reviewed what they had seen before reporting aloud. ''Two guards at each door, four doors,'' Loki stated. ''All eight armed.''

''A metal fence at each side, most likely wired with an electric current,'' Natasha said. ''No dogs, probably trick lines instead.''

''Those are a lot of assumptions, Agent Romanoff,'' Loki commented lowly.

''You may have been a warrior where you are from, but you don't know this world like I do,'' Natasha snapped.

Loki bowed his head slightly, an admission of his mistake, though his mouth tasted bitter as he did. He never liked being reprimanded, and he liked even less that it was from a human.

Loki waited patiently for her to speak again, the silence between them heavy as Natasha debated giving him the explanation he wanted. It would have been easy to lie, but she spent her whole life lying.

''The man we are after, he is a scientist for the KGB. A corrupt section of the Russian government,'' she began. ''He did a lot of bad things, but he is most well known for his work in the Black Widow program.''

''You have not told me it, but I have heard some of the men of S.H.I.E.L.D. call you the 'Black Widow'. That seems like too much of a coincidence,'' Loki interrupted carefully.

''Steve Rogers is Captain America, Bruce Banner is Hulk, Clint Barton is Hawkeye, Tony Stark is Iron Man,'' she explained, and she took an unsteady breath before finishing. ''And I am Black Widow.''

''You knew this man personally, the scientist,'' Loki surmised.

Natasha nodded slowly. Her eyes averted to the ground, and they took on a distant look. Loki watched her face silently, waiting for her to speak again.

''I was orphaned at a young age, and chosen to be a part of the program,'' she said, her voice as distant as her eyes. ''I was trained to manipulate, to kill. My head, my memories, my body... everything was tampered with and nothing was sacred.''

She shook her head slightly, and when she looked at Loki she was herself again. ''There was evidence that they are trying to resurrect the program, and he is a major part of that. No one knows how to do what he does, and if he is taken out then there would be no way they could replicate the process.''

His eyes flickered over his face, and the words escaped his lips before he could stop them. As he gazed into her beautiful wide eyes, he breathed, ''Then we will stop him.''

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please continue reading and reviewing!


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

The actual time it took for everything to go wrong was three hours, thirteen minutes and twenty-two seconds. But for Natasha, it seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. One minute, her and Loki were in the middle of their mission, and the next she was strapped onto a chair that was all too familiar.

That transition did not take very long.

The fence had not been electrified, but the ground between it and the concrete KGB building had been set with traps. It made the process of taking out all eight of the guards on the doors longer than it should have been, but it had still only taken them less than an hour. The halls had been barren once they entered the facility, but still they climbed into the panels of the ceiling to keep their presence discrete.

Natasha had taken care of the security system before they even stepped within an inch of the fence. She had shorted the electricity with a handy gadget Stark had provided her, which made the short look like a small, harmless power glitch. It took out both the alarms and the video surveillance.

With the layout of the building provided, she and Loki parted ways. She did so reluctantly, given her suspicions, but they had no choice. They could be called back to headquarters any second, they couldn't afford to waste any more time than necessary.

It all turned sour when she moved onto a panel that had water damage, and the wood and cheap ceiling caved under her weight. She came out of her surprise enough to catch herself, but by the time she rose to her feet there were at least four guns pointed in her direction. She had been right over the small cafeteria in the building, and the Russian guards had left their meals to cool to bring her to the scientist.

* * *

At first there was fear in his face, but it turned soon to pleasure. He was happy to see her, restrained as she was, despite the implications of her presence there.

''Are you alone?'' he asked her, and there was a smile on his face that made Natasha's stomach turn. It meant he was thinking about what he was going to do to her, rather than the conversation at hand.

''Of course,'' she replied.

The smile widened. ''Yes, you always were so solitary. Even when you weren't training, you stayed away from the other girls. They tended to flock, build friendships, but you were always by yourself,'' he commented, his eyes far away. They focused again on her, and she pressed her lips into a tight line. ''I was so proud of you. You were perfect.''

Natasha did not say anything.

''Has being with _them_ softened you?'' he asked her.

''I promise you it has not,'' she spat, her words heavy with threat.

He chuckled lightly. ''I have missed your fire, Natasha,'' he said. ''I look forward to working with you again.''

He waved his hand, and the Russian guards dragged her forward.

''Strap her down.''

* * *

Loki swept his entire portion of the building, but there was no sign of the scientist. He had not heard from Natasha, and there was a strange anxiety present and heavy in his chest.

Finally he pressed his communicator. ''Agent Romanoff?'' he asked timidly.

Her reply was instant. ''Loki, I've been compromised-!'' Her voice died out, and then came a very distinctive crunching sound, followed by the screeching of the ruined technology that made Loki's heart jump in his throat.

It was from there that everything went from very bad to rock bottom.

Loki forgot everything for a moment. He forgot that he was supposed to be human. He forgot that he was supposed to be careful and to behave until he could make his move for the Tesseract.

And most importantly, he forgot not to care.

One moment he was crouched in the ceiling of the building, and the next he was in a small room. The room looked like something out of an infirmary, with beeping machines and flashing screens, but the light in the room was tinted red.

His breath choked in his throat when his eyes registered the sight before him. Natasha was strapped onto a leather dentist chair, her leather jumpsuit gone and replaced with a flimsy hospital gown. She was struggling so hard against the straps that they cut into her arms and legs until there was blood streaming down them.

There was a man next to Natasha, and Loki instantly recognized the scientist from the S.H.I.E.L.D. case file. He had his hand on her arm, and a syringe filled with a clear liquid in the other. The needle was nearly in her, but Loki knew he would not live long enough for it to reach her.

The syringe turned into a snake in his hands, and the scientist jumped back with a cry. The door opened behind Loki and two guards spilled in, but a scepter with a glowing blue center appeared in his hands the next moment and he blasted them both to the ground.

Once they were indisposed he spun on the scientist, who was on the floor and cornered by the black python. He approached slowly, tauntingly, and a smirk twitched on his lips at the sight of the man cowering before him.

Loki plunged the blade into the man's heart, and the death was too quick and too swift to be satisfying.

When it was all over, and the last of the light in the scientist's eyes had faded, Loki turned to face Natasha. She was still against the leather of the chair, her eyes wide and her lips pressed into a tight line.

Loki lifted the bloodied blade to the straps, and slit the leather easily. Even when they fell away Natasha did not move, and Loki swallowed hard. He willed the scepter away, and wearily approached the bed. He let himself forget himself for a moment, and he slipped his hands under her small body and lifted her into his arms.

She felt small and frail beneath his hands, her body stiff and unresponding like a doll. He tightened his arms around her in an embrace, and pressed his face into her fire hair. He stayed like that for a long few minutes, and there were no words spoken between them. When he finally drew away from her, he stopped when their faces were only an fraction apart, their lips only a breath away from each other.

He breathed in as if he was going to move in for the kiss, and she made the smallest sound in her throat between a gasp and a cry as she waited for him to do it.

But instead, he moved away from her. He set her on her feet and stepped away, nearly to the other side of the room from her, until the heel of his boot broke the pool of blood that circled the scientist's cooling body.

There was one moment, one moment that lasted longer than all the others, that they stood there and looked at each other, frozen in silence. One moment when they were happy that the scientist was dead and that Natasha was safe.

It did not last long. Natasha was suddenly in action, fumbling for the surgical equipment set up next to the leather chair, perhaps in hopes to stop him, but by the time her hand closed over one of the blades he was already gone.

* * *

Natasha stumbled to the floor and grabbed up the broken plastic of her earpiece. She tampered with it, praying that she could get it to work long enough to contact Director Fury.

It buzzed to life and she nearly cried.

''Director Fury, do you copy?'' she whispered urgently into the microphone. There were still other Russian guards in the building, and she did not want to draw their attention.

''I copy,'' came Director Fury's reply, and Natasha's heart raced in relief at the sound of his voice.

''Loki has defected. I think he's going for the Tesseract.''

There was sound at the other end of the line, and Natasha feared that the earpiece had defected too. But when Fury spoke again, his voice was clear. She suddenly wished it had been the earpiece that had made the commotion.

''Loki was here. He has already made off with the Tesseract. Six of our men are dead,'' Director Fury stated, his voice urgent and angry. ''Get here as fast as you can, Agent Romanoff.''

The line went dead, and Natasha got moving. She changed back into her jumpsuit in record time, and jumped into the ceiling duct. She made it out of the building in only a few minutes, and scrambled as fast as she could up the surrounding mountain. Even at her set pace, it took her two hours to reach the hidden aircraft.

She sped off in the direction of headquarters, even though she knew Loki was long gone. It was only halfway there that she realized there was tears streaming down her face, and that the noise she heard in the cockpit wasn't the plane but the sound of her own sobbing.

She didn't know if the tears were a result of the shock finally wearing off from her return to the Red Room, or if she felt guilty that she had not tried to stop Loki when she could. A part of her worried that it was something to do with her feelings for Loki that she had yet to come to terms with.

By the time the aircraft found its place in the landing bay, she still wasn't sure which reason was the right one.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

By the time Natasha reached the others in the control room, all traces of her tears were gone and her usual reserved demeanor had overtaken her once again. Her team turned to face her upon her arrival, and not all the expressions that greeted her were friendly.

This was quickly explained by the video playing on the surrounding screens like a broken record for all of S.H.I.E.L.D. to see. Her eyes moved past the others, to watch the events unfold, but she was seeing them for the second time.

It was a video of Loki teleporting into the Red Room. Of Loki blasting the guards away with an alien magic. Of Loki stabbing the scientist in the chest and slashing her restraints. Of Loki pulling her into an intimate embrace and almost kissing her. Of Loki vanishing as quickly as he had come when she went for a knife.

More than that, it was a video of her being too slow. Of her being too stupid.

After watching it over for the fifth time, she went to the main screen and turned the power off with a few quick clicks. All of the other screens followed suit, until they were black and blank and still.

''I see Stark got his hands on the video surveillance from my mission,'' Natasha addressed Director Fury blandly, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned once again to face the others. ''Which was a success, as you can see.''

''One of them,'' Director Fury replied sharply. Natasha pressed her lips into a tight line, knowing what he was going to say before he spoke the words aloud. ''Did you forget your other mission? To keep an eye on the hostile?''

Natasha's face remained blank, though inside she was burning with anger at being reprimanded so publicly ''Loki showed no definite signs of being a hostile force.''

''You had ample time to react,'' Director Fury stated, his voice betraying some of the anger stewing in his own body. ''If you had acted accordingly, we would likely not be in this situation.''

''No, I would likely be dead,'' she replied icily. ''Or did you not see what he did to those guards?''

''She's right,'' Tony said, his voice slightly weary of interrupting the conversation. He glanced at Natasha, and his eyes were softly suspicious. ''Though I can't for sure say that I believe that was the motive behind her letting Loki escape, it is still the truth.''

''Most of you are only human, and he's got alien technology similar to the Tesseract,'' Bruce added timidly. ''You can't fight that. Not alone, and live.''

Director Fury's stubburn expression gave away his desire to argue, but instead he dropped it. He looked to Tony and Bruce. ''Has your program had any luck locating the energy signature of the Tesseract?''

''Not yet,'' Tony said. ''He must be keeping it on the down low for now.''

''If only we knew what he was going to use it for, we could anticipate his next move,'' Clint said.

''How do you think he even got his powers back in the first place?'' Steve asked.

It took Natasha a moment to realize the question was directed at her. She pursed her lips slightly. ''He seemed a little off after the Chitauri attack. We left for the mission before I had time to address it.''

''Do you think he had contact with the Chitauri?'' Clint pressed. ''Do you think it has something to do with the Tesseract?''

''Perhaps he made a deal with the Chitauri,'' Tony answered for her. ''His powers for the Tesseract.''

Natasha shook her head, pressing her lips into a tight line. ''The weapon he had was only a taste of what the Tesseract had to offer. If Loki stole it for them, they had to offer him much more than just his powers in return.''

''Let's assume the worst then, that Loki is going to use the Tesseract himself,'' Director Fury stated. ''We need to get eyes on him _now_.''

As if his words had magic of their own, one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents working on one of the surrounding computers shoved his chair back and stood up from his seat.

''Director, Loki has been spotted.''

* * *

''You sure you want to do this?''

Natasha's eyes flickered over to Clint as she finished tying the last strap of her heel at her ankle. ''I have an obligation to stop Loki, since I failed to in Russia. You and the others made that very clear,'' she replied tightly.

They were in the back of a jet, on their way to Germany where Loki had been spotted by a surveillance camera and facial recognition technology. There was some sort of special event taking place, and he seemed to be biding his time there. It was very apparent that he was waiting for them, but to what purpose they did not know.

The rest of the team was around them, but they did not dare intervene in the conversation. Even Tony was oddly silent as they made their way toward their destination.

When it was time for Natasha to leave, she strapped the last of her hidden weapons in place and descended from the plane. The others hung back and the jet disappeared until they were needed.

* * *

Natasha walked the short distance to the gala, and moved through the crowd as if she were a ghost. Her progression was stalled when the crowd became more dense near the front of the room, where a man stood giving a speech.

Movement behind him on the staircase caught her eye, and her eyes widened when she saw Loki descending the steps.

Her breath caught for a moment when she saw him. He was wearing a suit similar to the one he had worn on their first mission, and there was a dark gleam in his eye that made her stomach fill with butterflies. His fingers gently clasped a beautiful black cane, and the green and gold scarf hung elegantly across his shoulders.

She made it to him before he'd descended the last set of stairs. He came to a stop before her, his expression weary for only a brief moment before he smirked. His eyes glanced at the pillar she had strategically positioned herself beside. ''Do you plan to take me out right here, Agent Romanoff?''

She did not say anything, and his smirk widened as he obligingly joined her behind the pillar, successfully hiding them both from the crowd below. It brought him dangerously close to her, and he was suddenly overwhelmed by the heat of her.

He hid it quickly, and reached up to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear, hoping to unnerve her. To his surprise, she did not move away. When he completed the motion, his hand clenched into a fist at his side. ''Do you still not fear me? Even after what you have seen of my true self?''

''Powers do not make a man,'' Natasha said. ''You are no different in my eyes.''

Loki pressed his lips into a tight line, and his eyes flashed in anger. ''I am not a man. I am a God. I am much more than you knew me to be. I promise that you will learn to fear me.''

''Promises don't mean much from the lips of the God of Lies,'' Natasha taunted. Her breath left her when her back was suddenly pressed against the pillar, and she gasped silently when his fingers found their way to her throat. She clutched at his lapel with one hand as his thumb dumb into her windpipe, while the other slid a blade from a sheath at her thigh.

As if he sensed the slight movement, he moved his thigh forward to press her wrist into the hard stone of the pillar. She grunted as the knife fell from her fingertips and clattered noisily on the steps. The movement of his thigh forced his whole body forward, and the cold press of his body made a shiver ripple violently through her.

His hands clutched her roughly as she struggled against his grip. His breath was heavy and hot against her ear. ''You look lovely tonight, Agent Romanoff. Did you dress for me?''

''Not for you. To stop you,'' she gasped, trying as hard as she could to fight the black that edged her vision from lack of oxygen. A smirk twitched on his lips at her struggles, and out of spite she made a move of desperation to kill it.

Her fingers slid up his lapel to grasp at his hair, and with the last of her strength she pulled his face down to hers.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Loki did not fight her. Instead, he melted into the kiss, and pressing her more firmly against the marble pillar at her back. He ate at her mouth hungrily, as if a man starved, as if he were trying to steal the very breath from her lungs.

Natasha realized much too late that that was exactly what he intended to do. She had been so absorbed in her own manipulation that she failed to recognize his. As he kissed her, his thumb pressed harder against her windpipe, and her vision began to fill with black. Though she could tell he was enjoying himself immensely by the hard length of him pressed against her groin through the soft material of his suit pants, he had other priorities.

She went limp against him, and he held her arms as her dazed and nearly unconscious body slunk to the floor at his feet. He stared down at her for one long moment before he leaned down himself and pressed his lips to her ear. ''I will have you kneel down before me again, Agent Romanoff. It will be for much different purposes.''

Then his lips were gone, his hands were gone, and Natasha's vision went black.

* * *

Her vision blurred back to life, and her heart raced in her chest as she wondered how much time had passed. She looked down to the bottom of the staircase, just in time to see one tendril of Loki's scarf disappear as he rounded the corner.

Only a few seconds had elapsed, and one more as she stumbled ungracefully to her feet and followed after him.

The few seconds had been enough for him to get where he needed to be. By the time Natasha rounded the corner herself, he was dragging the man that had been speaking by the back of his suit jacket across the room. The crowd parted for him with shocked gasps and cries in fear, no one daring to get in the way of the god.

She stepped over the two guards that were crumpled on the floor beside the fallen microphone, barely avoiding the blood that pooled at their heads.

Loki tossed the man onto the flat back of a statue, and produced a gleaming trinket from thin air. Three legs clicked from the center body, and it was only then that Loki's movements stilled. For only a moment, all of Loki was frozen except for his eyes, which sought hers out in the crowd. He smiled when he found her, frozen a long few feet away from him, and stuck the device right into the man's eye.

A few people screamed, most made a run for it. Natasha lost Loki in the stream of bodies, and she herself was jerked and thrown back from the force of their desperation to escape.

An elbow caught her in the back and she was suddenly falling to the floor. Her heart stopped in her chest, knowing she would be trampled to death if that were to happen. Her fear was short lived.

She fell against cold metal and leather, and her hands fumbled at the fabric as she righted herself. Loki had altered his clothes to once again be the ones she had first seen him adorn, his Asgardian uniform. She had only a moment to register him before her world was suddenly spinning and wrenching and consuming her, as she was teleported from the middle of the ballroom inside to the curve of the street outside.

The feeling lasted only a moment before she stumbled onto her hands and knees onto the very hard, very real asphalt of the road, where Loki had tossed her.

''Kneel!'' Came the order behind her, and suddenly there were people on their knees around her, their voices and their screams frozen in their throats. She heard a few people sobbing softly, but besides that the night was completely silent around her.

She started for her feet, nausea threatening to undo her, but an aged man beat her to it.

''I will not kneel,'' he said defiantly as he raised wearily to his feet.

''You will kneel to me, elder,'' Loki said to the man, and Natasha looked back at him towering over the crowd. ''I mean to rule you. To free you of your freedom.''

''Who are you to make that decision?'' the man asked, anger flashing in his wise eyes.

''I am a god. I will be your king,'' Loki replied. ''And I will be your savior. There has been no man like me to grace your lands before. Kneel before me and I will save you from yourselves.''

''There are always men like you,'' the man replied, and though he was weak the words were strong.

Anger flickered over Loki's arrogant expression, and the cane that had become the alien staff was suddenly up and pointed in the direction of the man. ''Look to your elder. He will serve as an example for anyone who wishes to defy me.''

Natasha was on her feet a moment later, but it was much too late. Power erupted from the end of the staff, headed straight for the man. He did not even flinch and instead braced himself for the blow, but it never came.

It was Loki that crumpled to the ground, as the power reflected off of Steve's shield and backfired on the god.

Steve skidded to a stop in front of the man, and as Loki moved to retaliate Natasha was there in front of him. Though he had trained with her, he was in no shape to counter her abilities after the blast from the scepter. She wrapped her body around his and spilled him to the floor.

Out of spite, he threw her body away and sent a blast of energy toward her. She barely moved in time to avoid a deadly blow, but it grazed her side and made her crumple back to the ground.

Steve's shield struck Loki across the shoulder to draw his attention away from the fallen spider, and the two launched into a vicious battle. It stalled Loki enough for Clint to clear the scene, and just as Steve was failing Tony descended to the rescue.

When he realized he was outnumbered, Loki stayed on the ground where he had fallen during the battle and raised his hands above his head in defeat. As Steve and Tony came to secure him, his eyes sought out Natasha still crippled on the ground a few feet away. He watched as the archer lifted her into his arms, and pressed his lips into a tight line at the sound of her pained cries of protest.

Then hands were wrenching him to his feet and binding his own at his front, and he was whisked away by the other members of her team and back into captivity.

* * *

Natasha could feel Loki's eyes on her as Bruce tended to the injury at her side, but she did not dare look at him. A lot of her wanted to kill him, and a lot of her wanted to do other things with him. It was a severe conflict of feelings, but she was more confused by his sudden desire to rule the world than by her own emotions.

''Is that what they offered you?'' she asked without looking at him. ''The Chitauri will give you the world in return for the Tesseract?''

Loki said nothing, just leaned his head back against the cool body of the plane, but it was answer enough for Natasha.

The plane suddenly shook as wind tore at its body. Rain was pounding hard against the metal, and Natasha could see light flashing in the cockpit from the lightning in the sky. The sound of thunder rumbled around them, and Loki's eyes danced nervously.

''A god is scared of a little thunder?'' Tony taunted. He had been watching over Loki like a hawk, along beside the hawk himself.

''I am not overly fond of what follows,'' he breathed, not looking to them but to the ceiling of the plane, as if he could see the sky outside.

A few seconds later the plane shudder as if it had struck something, and all of the Avengers stumbled but managed to stay afoot. ''What was that?'' Clint demanded, heading toward the cockpit to speak with the pilots.

His answer came before he had even taken two steps, when the back of the plane was forced open and a man landed on the open slab of metal. He wore a red cape that rippled in the stormy wind, and the armor across his chest gleamed when a bolt of lightning struck the air. His eyes were all for the god seated a few feet away, and the anger that rolled between them was nearly palpable.

Natasha recognized the intruder immediately, and she stayed the others from attacking.

She stepped forward, placing herself between him and Loki, and bowed her head slightly in greeting.

''Hello, Thor.''

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

The god shifted uncomfortably in front of Natasha. His eyes were all for Loki, but when he spoke he addressed her. ''You know of me, but I do not know of you.''

She bowed her head again slightly. ''My name is Natasha Romanoff. I am with S.H.I.E.L.D.. I believe you met Agent Coulson when you were last on Earth,'' she said.

''Your people stole from Jane Foster,'' Thor said, but he was not angry. Natasha had reviewed the file enough to know what he was talking about, and also about the rough peace he had struck with Agent Coulson.

Behind her, Loki made a disgusted sound at the woman's name.

''Borrowed,'' Natasha corrected with brief smile. ''I know you have come for your brother, but he is in our captivity at this moment.''

Thor shook his head, his eyes still directed away from her. ''You do not know my brother if you think he is not exactly where he means to be.''

Chains rattled at her back as Loki stood from his seat. Though his hands were bound at his front, his body moved like a predator. Natasha looked over her shoulder at him, and the malice in his eyes as he looked at his brother made a tremor of fear run through her.

''You always did know me better than I knew myself,'' he said to his brother, his voice calm with just the slightest edge of anger. ''You knew I was something to be hated.''

''I do not hate you or what you are, my brother-'' Thor started. He made a move toward Loki, but Natasha stayed between them.

''I do not need you to protect me, Agent Romanoff,'' Loki said. ''He is no more harmless than a child.''

''If you knew the things I did as a child, you would realize the lack of reassurance that statement holds,'' she replied without looking at him, standing her ground. She turned her head his way. ''Sit down.''

Loki raised an eyebrow at the command, but he was not given the option to argue. Clint stepped forward and jerked him back down into his seat with a firm hand on his shoulder, and Loki shook his hand off with a violent twist of his shoulder.

''Your kind does not have the means to hold him,'' Thor said, finally looking at her in front of him. ''He is a god, Lady Romanoff. He is not something you or your people can handle.''

''It's Agent,'' she corrected him sharply. She crossed her arms over her chest, her face the epitome of calm despite the words that next escaped her lips. It was only Loki that saw the tremble of her body, and he pressed his lips tightly together as everyone else around her remained oblivious. ''If he is so dangerous, then why would you send him here in the first place? Should we interpret your actions as an act of war?''

Loki expected his brother to be grounded by this accusation, but he remained firm and unswayed. ''There was no insult meant in sending him here. He committed crimes that he must atone for.''

''And this was the perfect place to send him to learn his lesson?'' Tony questioned skeptically, moving to stand beside Natasha. His armor was in place, but his helmet was situated at his hip. ''Did you plan to welcome him back with open arms after he atoned for his crimes and leave us to suffer the consequences of his presence here? To pick up the pieces of our world that he leaves behind?''

''If he ever managed to atone at all, that is,'' Bruce added from across the room, his arms crossed over his chest and his expression weary.

''He was no threat in the condition he came to your planet,'' Thor defended. ''That is why I have come to collect him and bring him back to Asgard.''

''You do not know your brother if you do not think he is just as dangerous with his words as he is with his powers,'' Natasha countered, her tone acid despite the calm expression of her features.

''It's too late for that anyway,'' Steve said, stepping forward and to Tony's other side. ''There's something coming for our world, something he helped facilitate.''

There was a pause at the graveness of his words, and Thor's calm demeanor seemed to waver.

''Now, I'm pretty ignorant to this new world and way of life,'' Steve continued. ''But this planet is my home and I want to protect it. In order to do that, we need your brother here. He is the only one who knows exactly what is coming and how to stop it.''

Thor pressed his lips together and his head fell. His hands twitched at his sides, and Loki smirked openly at his internal struggle. It seemed Thor was not entirely the changed man he claimed to be, his hands still itching as they were for a violent solution.

''I will stay in Midgard to keep an eye on my brother,'' Thor stated, his deep voice wavering slightly from the conviction of his words. ''And I will fight at your side against whatever force comes for your world. I swore to protect it and I will not fail to do so.''

''Great,'' Tony replied sarcastically. ''Just what we need. Two gods. As if one weren't already enough trouble.''

Despite the truth of his words, it was obvious that the conversation was over.

''I need a scotch,'' Tony grumbled.

* * *

Natasha felt Loki's eyes on her as he was escorted out of the aircraft by a group of heavily armed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but she did not give him the satisfaction of returning his gaze. They were once again aboard their newly established headquarters in the sky, and Fury had been obliged to hand over the cage meant for Bruce Banner to house the hostile.

''It will hold him until we get what we need from him,'' Fury told them as he joined them in the command center where he had had them assemble.

''Or until he gets what he needs from us,'' Stark quipped bitterly.

''What is that supposed to mean?'' Steve asked as he took his seat at the round table in the center of the room. He kept his arms on the surface of the table, and his hands were clenched tightly into fists.

''It's like Blondie here said,'' Tony said, motioning lazily toward Thor, who stood wearily at the side of the room. ''His brother wouldn't be here if he didn't want to be. He's planning something.''

There was a heavy silence after his statement.

''What can you tell us about your brother that might keep us from falling into one of his traps?'' Natasha asked finally, looking to Thor.

''He was your partner,'' Clint snapped at her. ''Don't you know anything?''

''Would we be here if she did?'' Tony growled, coming to her defense. Natasha kept the guilt from leaking onto her face, as she recalled her suspicions and her feelings for Loki that had gotten in the way. Her stomach turned as she thought back to the Red Room, of that moment they shared that now seemed so far away. Her lips still burned from their shared kiss on the marble steps in Germany.

Thor's voice rumbled over the others, and it broke Natasha from her thoughts.

''My brother is never without a plan,'' Thor told them. ''He is a fighter, but his true strength lies in his silver tongue. I fear he can do more damage inside of that prison than outside of it.''

''That told us nothing we didn't already know,'' Bruce stated, with an impatience that surprised the others. ''Is there anything else?''

''He is manipulative,'' he said wearily. ''And angry. I hate to say this, but I fear the only way to find out his plan is to use his anger against him. I do not like the thought of causing my brother pain, but I will do it to save your world and take him back to mine.''

There was another heavy silence, and Natasha pressed her lips tightly together before rising from her seat at the round table.

''You won't have to,'' she said to him simply. She glanced at Fury who gave her a single, sharp nod of approval, and disappeared from the room before anyone could think to stop her.

* * *

Loki did not turn to face Natasha, but he knew it was her. He could feel the fire of her even through the glass, even through her thick skin and the ice cold barrier of her heart. He spoke the first word, stole it before she could even open her mouth to speak.

''I thought my brother would come to rub his ignorance in my wounds, but instead they send me you,'' he said calmly.

''You knew I would come.''

''In time,'' he replied shortly. She did not speak, and he did not bother to elaborate further. He turned sharply to face her, but kept his distance from the glass barrier between them. ''Why are you here, Agent Romanoff? Why did they send you? To be a balm to my wounds, to appear as a friend in my time of need?''

''To manipulate you,'' she replied bluntly.

Loki's eyebrows rose quickly, his surprise too immediate to keep from his face. He recovered quickly, flashing her a brief smile full of his sharp teeth. ''You are not doing a very good job of it, I am afraid.''

''They wanted me to lie to you, to get you to slip up on your plan so that we can stop it,'' she said.

He frowned at her, his amusement gone. ''What do you gain from telling me the truth, Agent Romanoff? What play is this?''

''Not a play,'' she replied. She crossed her arms over her chest, and stepped closer to the glass. ''You may have a silver tongue, but you appreciate honesty more than anything else because of it.''

''And you think telling me your motivations will get me to tell you my plan?'' Loki inquired with a sneer, his displeasure evident on his face. ''That is a manipulation in itself.''

Natasha did not say anything, just gazed at him calmly through the glass.

Loki was determined to leave her there waiting, but suddenly the weight of what she had done pressed upon his chest and he cursed her for it. She had given up any possibility of manipulating him for telling the truth. It was an honesty that he had never experienced before, and one that he might never experience again if it was not rewarded.

His jaw tensed as he raised his chin defiantly. His face was passive as he spoke, but his tone was laced with the bitterness of his obligation.

''I will not tell you my plan, Agent Romanoff, but I will give you a truth in return for yours,'' he said.

Her eyes sparked to life in front of him. She waited patiently for his next few words, and he enjoyed the fall of her expression after he spoke them.

He approached the wall so that he stood immediately in front of her, their bodies only separated by a few inches of air and glass. He pressed his forearm to the glass and leaned in close, intimately, as if whispering a secret to a lover.

''Whatever happens aboard this ship has nothing to do with the inevitable fall of your world,'' he said. ''My capture by you and your motley group of _heroes _has accomplished nothing. Events are still playing out as they are meant to, and the freedom of your world is drawing closer and closer to an end with every second that passes between us.''

Her face may have fallen, but the flame in her had not been extinguished. ''So your only purpose here is what? To cause chaos?''

Loki did not say anything. He just stepped back from the glass and stared passively at her, waiting patiently for her to fold.

A smile twitched at her lips, and Loki's arrogance choked in his throat.

''I know you are a bringer of chaos, but in Norse mythology you are known to have hidden agendas even apart from the destruction,'' she said. ''You are always two steps ahead of everyone else, calm and collected when everyone else is running around with their heads cut off.''

''You make me out to be much more than I am, my dear,'' he replied dismissively.

''When did you realize your mistake? That you were in over your head?'' she taunted.

She was surprised when Loki did not react to the implication of her questions, but she knew she was right. The twitch of his lip a few seconds later was her confirmation. ''It seems you are three steps ahead, Agent Romanoff.''

She started to turn away, to return to the others, but when he called out she stopped and looked back to him.

''My army of Chitauri is coming to wreak destruction on your world, and there is nothing you can do to stop it,'' he said, approaching the glass again.

Anger pressed itself out and onto his face, and the hatred in his eyes seemed to pierce right through her chest. ''I will rise to the top and tower over the shambles of you world, and what then?!'' he spat angrily, his face so close to the glass that it fogged from his breath. She waited until it cleared away, until she could see his face and the anger in his eyes as he gazed back at her.

''If that happens, Loki, if we fall to the Chitauri...'' she said, her eyes watering and her voice uncharacteristically wavering with the emotion that burned in her heart. She stepped back slowly without her eyes leaving his, until she was even with the panel that controlled the containment chamber. ''Then you will truly be alone.''

She lifted up the lid, exposing the glowing red eject button. Loki's eyebrows raised slightly, and he moved back from the glass to stand at the center of the room. She pressed the button to open up the floor beneath the chamber, and the wind brushed her hair back from her face and forced tears from her eyes.

''This isn't what you want. You want to be home in Asgard with your father and your brother, tucked in the warm embrace that you have lost. You convinced yourself that this is what you wanted, that this would ease the pain of losing your place in your home and in their hearts. Maybe you are too much of a coward to change your course and right your wrong,'' she said calmly.

''But I am not,'' she said. She pressed down on the glowing red button, and the chamber dropped.

* * *

Author's Note: Well... That was a long period of time of not posting. I am sorry. I made this longer in hopes of at least remotely making up for it. I have been so busy between work and nursing school that I do not have a lot of time to write. It is such a shame, because it is so much fun and so relaxing to escape in this other fantastical reality.

Anyway, I realize the end of this was a bit confusing, but Natasha's rationale will be explained in the next chapter. Please keep following, and reviews are greatly appreciated (and encouraging)!


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Natasha waited patiently for the others to come, and it did not take long. The door behind her burst open, and her fingers still lingered over the ejection button, the light painting her hand symbolically red. Tony and Clint got to her before the angry god, and stood at her front to keep him from advancing on her.

''What have you done?!'' he roared at her, waving his hammer threateningly in her direction.

Her heart jumped in her chest, so hard that she thought it might break from her skin, but she kept her chin high and her expression calm. ''I can explain.''

Thor's expression did not soften, but he backed off enough to allow Tony and Clint to relax their defensive positions. ''Do so quickly,'' he rumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and looking to her expectantly.

''He said that the reason for him being here was to play us against each other, to have us take each other out so that his plan to take over our world would prevail without any complications,'' she said.

''We heard all that. Get to the part where you sent him spiraling down to his death,'' Tony pressed her, eyeing Thor and his unstable demeanor.

She pressed her lips into a tight line. ''That's what he wanted us to believe anyway, but his intentions were the complete opposite. He wanted to tear us apart, not to destroy us, but to bring us together even stronger. To make us the team that can defeat what's coming,'' she said.

''That doesn't make any sense,'' Steve objected. ''He wants to be our king. He started all of this.''

She shook her head, not a shred of doubt in her mind. ''He thought this was his only option. He had given up any hope of returning home to his family and that is why he set these events into action. He doesn't want this. He knows that if this goes through that he has no chance of redemption. He wants out, and we are his loophole,'' she explained.

''And the plummeting?'' Tony pressed.

She shrugged a shoulder, faking nonchalance. ''Fresh air.''

''What is the deal with his family?'' Bruce interrupted, his gaze turning from Natasha to Thor. ''What happened?''

Thor had calmed while Natasha had spoken, but the tension returned to his body. ''The business of the house of Odin is not yours to know,'' he said firmly.

''You sent him here, and he is bringing a war upon our world,'' Director Fury stated firmly, finally speaking up. ''It is our business now.''

Thor fought to remain strong in his decision, but the truth of Fury's statement and his guilt weighed him down. It was not long before he wavered and broke. His head fell slightly, and his words were solemn when he finally spoke. ''I owe you the truth.''

''Can we move somewhere more comfortable?'' Tony suggested, eyeing the cold, empty room. ''I feel like this is going to be a long story.''

* * *

They ended up back in the command center. Tony produced a flask from his back pocket as they all took their seats around the table, and Fury shot him a disapproving glance.

''Do you carry that when you are suited up?'' Clint asked him.

''I am always packing,'' Tony said. He looked to Natasha and wiggled his eyebrows. She rolled her eyes at him and snatched the flask away, before taking a drink and tossing it back.

''Should that constitute as DUI?'' Clint cracked, but no one was in the mood for laughing and an awkward silence pursued.

Finally, Thor broke it. His voice was grave as he spoke, weary as if each word burned and caused him pain.

''Loki and I grew together. We played together as children, we fought together as warriors of Asgard. I was his brother, and I was his friend,'' Thor started, his hands clasped before him on the table and his head bowed low. ''But he was different, and he was always made very aware of his shortcomings. He grew in my shadow, and I am to blame for his bitterness.''

''Different how?'' Banner pressed.

Thor put his face in his hand. ''He possessed a magic that was foreign to Asgard. I always thought that it was some kind of defect, and so did the others. I could never have imagined the truth.''

He hesitated, and they all waited patiently for him to continue.

''My brother... he is not Odinson by blood. At the end of our war with the Frost Giants many years ago, my father recovered a child that had been abandoned and left to die. He raised him as his own, spelled him to appear as we do so that he would never know his true parentage,'' Thor rumbled soberly. ''I was here on Midgard when he found out the truth, and I could not be there for him to keep him from falling so low.''

''What did he do to be punished and end up here?'' Clint asked.

''The war machine,'' Tony said, the pieces of the puzzle falling together. He put his hands flat to the table and stood from the table. ''Agent Coulson thought the technology belonged to me, but it was advanced beyond even my capabilities. Your brother sent it down to kill you.''

Thor nodded slowly. ''He had gone mad from the truth.''

''Ironic, that the truth would drive the God of Lies to madness,'' Banner said.

''He thought to make it untrue,'' Thor continued. ''He was in denial of the reality of it. In his desperation to prove himself Odinson, he sought to destroy Jotunheim and all the Frost Giants that resided there. This included his true father, the king of the Frost Giants. Laufey.''

Twin tears fell down Thor's cheeks, and he earned Natasha's full respect when his voice did not waver when he spoke next in spite of them. ''It was genocide. I stopped him. I could not let his conscious suffer such a blow, even though many would argue that he has none at all. I destroyed the bridge that links all of our worlds together, and it created an abyss. Loki tried to throw himself into it, to end the life that he had come to hate. I saved him from death, and Odin banished him to your lands.''

No one reached a hand to comfort Thor at the end of his story, and he did not need it. A war was headed their way. There was no time for sentiment.

* * *

They returned to their separate quarters soon after the conclusion of Thor's story, the weight of it heavy on their shoulders and their hearts. Some were more troubled than others.

Natasha slept restlessly, her body soaking the sheets with sweat from the nightmares that plagued her. Loki condemned her every dream, and she could not escape the guilt that came with him.

Clint slept soundly, his dreams full of the future and the peace that the fall of Loki would bring.

The scientists were both plagued with the knowledge of the different realms, it being so beyond their current understanding and comprehension that they could not rest unless they made sense of it.

Steve lay awake all night, not necessarily with thoughts of Loki on mind, but of how different this world was than the one he had known.

Director Fury tossed and turned in bed, fearing the war that was to come. He trusted the Black Widow that Loki was no longer a threat, but the coming war was not going to be an easy feat to overcome.

Thor did not even attempt to sleep. He stared out of the window of his room at the black canvas of sky and mourned the loss of his brother. He was sure Loki was still alive and well, but he thought back to the days that they had spent together and the endless adventures they had encountered, and he knew that it would never again be the same.

* * *

Loki had escaped the falling death trap easily enough. He had let the blue color of his people bleed over his skin, and sent ice slithering up the glass walls of the cell. He used magic to retrieve his scepter, and the glass shattered beneath a single blow. He escaped just before the cell struck the hard, unforgiving ground, and he tumbled and rolled to a stop in a field of daisies.

He lay there for a long while on a blanket of green and yellow. The blue faded from his skin, but the cold remained. Even with the sun beating down upon him, he was not warmed.

His mind wandered to the time he had spent with Natasha on their first mission to London. When he had knelt before her to help bandage her wound, he had felt a fire unknown to him. Now as he lay so far away from her, he had never felt colder.

She had read him as easily as the pages of an open book. It was not something that sat well with him. The anger that should have come with that insight was lacking, and instead he felt unnaturally calm.

Was it peaceful to finally be understood? To not have to play games, or spin intricate webs of lies? To be seen right through like a palate of glass?

Loki did not know the answer to those questions. Not yet.

He knew Natasha's intentions for throwing him out in the middle of nowhere, to give him the opportunity to come to terms with the truth. Perhaps he should be angry that in order to do so she had sent him spiraling down to the unforgiving ground, his second in such a short frame of time. But in truth, he was nothing short of grateful.

It was a long while before Loki rose from the ground. He had seen a moon and two suns, and it was only when he knew what he had to do that he braved to stand from the safe nest that the field of daisies had become.

Loki closed his eyes, and saw the war raging in New York playing out on his closed eyelids. His initial plan had been completed, the machine was up and running on the top of Stark Tower and the portal was open to the Chitauri army. He blinked the images away, his guilt weighing heavy on his chest.

Loki leaned down and picked his sceptor from the ground, and closed his eyes again.

He thought of Natasha, of her big, beautiful eyes and her hair of fire. When he opened them next, he saw red, but it was not from the source that he was hoping for.

Instead of Natasha, all he could see was blood.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I have break next week, so hopefully more chapters will be soon to come! Please read and review.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

The machine that held the portal open at the top of Stark Tower roared beside Loki, but he could not hear anything at all. His eyes were fixed on Natasha, who lay motionless in a pool of blood beside the machine.

Part of her suit was burned away, presumably by a hit from a Chitauri weapon, and the skin of her belly was scorched and raw from the blast. The tip of a Chitauri blade protruded from her shoulder, clear through the skin and muscle and bone, and he could see blood still slowly trickling from the wound to join the blood on the gravel beneath her.

His knees hit the gravel hard, but he could not feel the rocks pressing through the thick leather of his pants. He could not feel anything at all beyond the warmth of Natasha's body as he lifted her into his arms and cradled her against his chest. The warmth was welcome, a promise of the life that still pulsated in her body.

The Chitauri did not bother him as they soared past, leaving chaos and destruction in their paths. He did not pay attention to them either, and pressed his lips to Natasha's hair as he let the blue of his people bleed over his skin once again.

He pressed his hand to her belly over the burn, and the skin around his hand flooded with a blue that rivaled his own. He could feel her skin healing and stitching itself back together beneath his palm, and he sighed against her cheek. He could not do anything for the blade in her shoulder, the worst of her wounds, but the trauma of the burn would at least be alleviated.

Just as the last of the wound disappeared, he heard weight press down onto the gravel at his back. He did not turn to look at the intruder, knowing who it was before he even spoke.

''Brother, you have returned,'' Thor rumbled. He was breathless from the fight, and though Loki could not see him, he could tell he favored one side due to the way he shifted the gravel at his feet. He was hurt. ''In what condition do you come?''

Loki swallowed hard, past the anger and bitterness that surfaced at the sound of the thunder god's voice. He swallowed it all down, and those few minutes it took for him to speak were the most trying. When he finally did, he let the blue fade from his skin and bowed his head. ''In peace.''

Thor shifted slightly behind him. ''Then leave Lady Romanoff somewhere she is safe, and help us clean up the mess that you have created.''

* * *

Loki took Natasha to the confines of Stark Tower, to a space in the middle where there was a warm bed and she would be safe from the battle. It was only Thor at his back that made him leave her side to fight.

Loki returned to the machine and pressed the tip of his scepter to its center. The beam holding the portal open died instantly, and the portal sealed itself. But the war continued to wage below against the Chitauri that remained on Midgard, and Loki and Thor set to ridding the land of them.

Clint ran out of arrows early on, and though his hand to hand combat skills were up to par, his progress through the creatures was slow and less than effective. Tony's suit was nearing a dangerously low amount of functioning power, and he had taken to the ground to be safe. Steve was still briskly making his way through the masses of Chitauri, but the battle was taking its tole and wearing him down. Hulk was busy with the larger Chitauri vesicles, and the individual soldiers were still wreaking havoc throughout the city.

Loki fought beside Thor for what seemed like the first time in ages. In truth, it had not been long since their battle in Jotunheim against the Frost Giants. But that memory was tainted with Loki's ill intentions and what he had discovered that day.

They fell into a pattern that was like a second skin to them. Loki distracted the Chitauri with his magic, and Thor took advantage of their altered attention to break them apart with his hammer. The Chitauri did not hesitate to turn on Loki despite the fact that he was the man that they were here on behalf. This did not surprise Loki, as it would make him a hypocrite when it came to loyalty.

Thor watched Loki closely throughout their battle. He saw flashes of the Loki he had been once upon a time, and it gave him hope that one day things could be repaired between them.

Loki could feel Thor watching him, and he knew that his brother needed this perhaps more even than him.

Loki swung his scepter for the last time, and the last Chitauri solider fell at his feet. Beside him, Thor collapsed to his knees in both exhaustion and relief. The others were slow to join them, wearied as they were by the battle and Loki's presence among them.

''I scanned the area for any stragglers,'' Tony said breathlessly, the face plate of his Iron Man suit up and exposing his face. He looked to Loki, his dark eyes narrowing. ''I only found one.''

Thor stood from where he knelt and moved to stand in front of his brother. ''He is not the same man that started this. He closed the portal, he fought beside me, he saved Lady Romanoff-'' he started adamantly.

Thor's words fell short when he felt the cold press of a hand on his shoulder from behind. Loki moved to stand at Thor's side, his head bowed slightly. ''I think perhaps it is time that the burden of defending my actions falls on myself rather than on you,'' he said calmly, looking to his brother to provide the reassurance he needed.

Thor nodded slowly and bowed his head, taking a step back both literally and metaphorically.

''I do not have any explanation to suffice for my actions,'' Loki said solemnly. ''Nor will I offer any excuses. I will comply with any punishment you see fit. I have only one request in return for my complete cooperation.''

Clint lurched forward in anger. ''You want us to do something for _you_?! Are you _joking_?!''

''There is no humor in my request,'' Loki replied carefully.

Tony put a hand on Clint's shoulder and forced him back. He stepped forward, so that he was only a short distance from Loki. ''What do you request?''

Loki looked to the ground, and adopted a nervous gesture with his hands that baffled them. Loki was embarrassed, something they were not aware he was capable of. It was not humiliation, but an embarrassment that came with vulnerability.

''May I see Agent Romanoff again before you take me away?''

* * *

When they entered the room where Loki had left Natasha, they found her awake. She was sitting upright in the bed, her arm bent back behind her and her hand gripped around the edge of the Chitauri blade that protruded from her shoulder. In one sickening movement, she pulled the blade free with nothing more than a small gasp of pain.

She looked up in surprise when they all cried out to stop her, her eyebrows raised and her face nearly completely void of any emotion. She reached up and gripped her shoulder, which was throbbing lightly and dribbling new blood down her arm. ''I almost healed around it,'' she said blankly, blinking up at them. ''I had to remove it.''

They did not say anything, and she looked past them to the dark figure that stood at their backs. She looked back down to her lap, to the Chitauri blade in her hand. ''You can leave us.''

''Tasha-'' Tony started to argue, but she looked up at him and whatever he saw in her eyes made him fall silent. He nodded his head slightly and left the room with the others, babbling about wanting some shawarma at a restaurant a few blocks away. In reality, she knew they would not be more than a few steps away from her door in case anything were to happen.

* * *

Loki swallowed hard as the door closed quietly at his back. Natasha was watching him with blank eyes, and he did not know exactly how to approach her. How can you thank someone for turning your life around? For making you a better person? For making you _want_ to be a better person?

Natasha moved to stand, but she put too much weight on her bad arm and fell back down to the mattress with a wince. Loki moved forward then and sat down beside her on the bed, his hands reaching for her before he could think to stop them. Natasha recoiled from his touch at first, but Loki did not relent.

His grip on her was firm, but not painful. He was careful not to move her arm to hurt her, and when she relaxed in his grip his hands released her. He brought one up to rest on the wound on her shoulder, and he let the blue of his people rush over his skin once again.

Natasha tensed, and he felt her eyes studying him. She did not cry out in fright or shy away, but just watched him as he sent the cold into her wound and repaired her shoulder. She expected to feel the tendons repairing themselves and muscles stitching back together, but instead it was only numb where Loki's fingers touched her.

His red eyes met hers for only a moment before the blue faded and his eyes returned to their usual green. His hand fell away, and he moved from the bed to stand in front of her. She opened her mouth to stop his abandonment, but he did not move to leave the room. He slowly got down onto his knees before her, and Natasha could not hide her surprise.

''A god would lower himself to me?'' she asked, one eyebrow twitching slightly higher than the other. She was baiting him, but the words did not spark the fire that she was weary of inside him.

''I do not feel like much of a god at this moment,'' he said. There was a long silence, and Loki swallowed hard. ''I actually feel what I expect it would be like to truly be human.''

''You were human before,'' she countered, her eyes narrowing.

Loki sighed slightly. ''It was a means to an end. It was a life I had to endure to get back to whom I was. I only just figured out that it was not the life I wanted when you sent me tumbling to the ground after our conversation.''

''And you know what you want now?'' she asked blankly.

A smile twitched on Loki's lips, but it held no amusement. It was sad, and he looked to the floor. ''There is a price I must pay for my actions. What I want is of no concern at this moment.''

''It concerns me,'' she persisted.

''It is selfish,'' he countered hastily, his tone frustrated. But the frustration was at himself, not with her.

''You just brought an entire war down on our world to get your father's attention,'' Natasha said wryly, and Loki pressed his lips into a tight line. ''I don't think one more little selfish thing will hurt.''

''It is not a small thing that I want, Agent Romanoff,'' he sneered, growing irate with her persistence. It was hard enough to deny her without her insisting he do the opposite.

''Just tell me what you want,'' she growled, growing impatient herself.

''_You_,'' he snarled finally, getting to his feet. His anger radiated off of him in waves, but when he looked down to her beautiful, wide eyes gazing up at him he could not maintain it.

''You,'' he repeated softly, falling to his knees once again. ''You make me feel whole where I once felt incomplete. I always knew for as long as I have lived that I am different, but I do not feel that difference with you. I want you, Agent Romanoff.''

* * *

Author's Note: Got caught up with school again. Please do not be mad. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review and continue reading.


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